New Resolutions
by jon08
Summary: The continuing saga of Dudley Dursley, Social Worker at the Ministry of Magic and his interactions with his cousin and the rest of the wizard world.
1. Chapter 1

New Resolutions

By Jon08

The continuing saga of Dudley Dursley, Social Worker at the Ministry of Magic and his interactions with his cousin and the rest of the wizard world.

Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.

Chapter 1: A British Werewolf in Massachusetts

The portkey activated and Gabrielle and I were whisked from the peace of the hotel in France where we had spent the first night of our honeymoon and we were on our way to Massachusetts in the USA. The portkey was Mum and Dad's wedding present, well mainly Mum's I suppose considering Dad's ongoing problems with Magic. He had spent the wedding in the church, so uptight that if someone had greeted him with a slap on the back I'm sure he'd have cracked like a statue hit with a large mallet.

Aunt Marge was a different person, somewhere along the line, she must have had a 'personality transplant' of her own somewhere along the way; she had been talking quite warmly with Molly Weasley and Ginny, about her dogs as if they were her own children. The only person not enjoying what was going on had been Dad, every time someone came to talk to him he tried to vanish into the back of the chair he was sitting on, in case the person approaching him was going to put a spell on him or something. For the most part, he was avoided by the wizarding members of the congregation who gradually got to see how uncomfortable their presence made him. In some small way I felt sorry for him, this problem was all of his own making, if only he could see them as 'normal' people not some frightening wizard going to wave a stick at him and turn him into a toad or something.

There was the familiar feeling of nausea and wanting to fall flat on our faces as the portkey landed in a small secluded area at the rear of the airport; it looked just like a deserted broom closet or small storage room; then there was an unexpected red flash in the area and we seemed to be inside a red cage made of light. "European wizards, please wait for magical customs personnel to arrive. Do not attempt to apparate or portkey away, wards have been erected to prevent this!" Gabrielle and I looked at each other, we certainly weren't expecting this; nothing had been mentioned by the authorities at our own ministry about magical customs.

There was a slight shimmering in the air to our left and a tall individual stepped through the shimmer and onto the concrete floor of 'our cage'. Looking at the individual, it was easy to assess straight away that he wasn't entirely human. His ears were pointed, his hair seemed to grow outwards from the centre of his head and continue further down his back than was normal, and then there was the long tail; that passed through a hole in the back of his trousers, like a horse tail. "Sorry about the precautions, but we must be careful, no criminals try to enter our borders; I'm sure you understand?" Gabrielle and I nodded dumbly at this. "So glad you understand!" he took a small wallet from his pocket and opened to show what looked like a couple of surgical scalpels, sitting inside it. This caused me to get nervous, Gabrielle too, I shouldn't wonder, but I was too busy staring worriedly at the knives in front of me to look at her.

"If I may have your wand hand Sir?" asked the now rather alarming figure in front of us. Nervously I put my right hand forward, wondering what on earth I'd let us in for. With a quick jab, he took a small sample of blood, no more than a drop and dropped it onto the other side of the book from the blades. "Dudley Vernon Dursley, born June 23rd 1980, educated Little Whinging Elementary, Smeltings Academy, St. Piran's Comprehensive, Bristol University and Finally Hogwarts. Currently Social Services Minister at the UK Ministry of Magic. Am I correct?" I nodded numbly to this and looked quickly at my hand; there was no sign of any injury.

"Thank you...and Madam if I may?" A little more confidently after my ordeal, Gabrielle held her hand forward; "Gabrielle Marie Delacour Dursley born 19th December 1985, Dijon, France; home educated till eleven, then Beauxbatons Academy. Currently working in the technology department at the UK Ministry of Magic. Correct?" She nodded numbly in much the same way I had.

"So what happens now? How come we weren't informed of any customs by the ministry at home? Are you going to obliviate our memories of your inspection, so we won't tell anyone back home?"

"Just enjoy your honeymoon, congratulations by the way! I have no idea, why your ministry didn't inform you, then again, no offense, a lot of the European ministries are so outdated. You are free to enjoy all the amenities throughout the states, as long as you break no laws, and I must warn you; the obliviate spell you mentioned is treated as mind rape by the US courts of law, illegal in all 54 states!"

"Brilliant thanks! Hang on I thought there was only 50 states, when did you add the last four?"

"British muggle education, I take it?" I nodded at this. "There's New Sparta, one of the original 14 states that made up the first union. Then there's Western Colorado; that tends to be most of our lycanthrope citizens tend to reside, lots of open space or forest to run and hunt in both forms..."

"You allow werewolves to run around loose, are you not frightened that they'll bite someone or even worse kill when they're in their wolf form. It's extremely dangerous, isn't it?"

"Not dangerous at all! Your use of the term werewolf suggests that your ministry still believe the wolf part of a lycanthropes existence is a curse, even restricting the interaction such a person can have with society. Here in the states, you'll find no such restrictions. A lycanthrope has the same freedom as any human wizard; the European treatment of werewolves, that of locking them up when they become a wolf and treating them as second class citizens the rest of the time does no good. The wolf must be allowed to come forward at other times, not just the full moon. A level of control is learnt if this happens, the wolf is not just a frenzied animal, frustrated by only being allowed a couple of nights a month."

"Hang on. Werewolves can transform anytime, I thought it was restricted to the full moon?"

"Again, rubbish perpetuated by your ministries. A lycanthrope can transform into his lupine form at any time, a bit like a wolf animagus; it's only the full moon that he has to. If the wolf is treated as a caged wild animal, it acts like one. Why I bet your ministries are still advocating that 'Wolfsbane' potion that some crackpot European wizard tried to get licensed for use here a few years ago. That stuff failed to get FDA approval as a medicinal potion. It basically poisons the wolf; never be allowed in American Law."

"Blimey! Such things never occurred to me; what about the other states?"

"There's Nouvelle Lorraine, you'd better speak French if you go there, they can be a little touchy about it, and New Derry! All these extra states have some magical connection so are covered in Europe by your outdated Statute of Secrecy. There's no such law in the states, all information about magic is in the public domain. Of course you need to find it first before you're told everything, but it can be found if you know where to look."

"Sounds fascinating! We'll have to look into it a little more than we'd planned. We just assumed it would be the same as back home! Judging from your appearance and from something I learnt from an acquaintance back home, I'm assuming you must have a centaur somewhere in your family background and I would hesitate a guess that your family has connections to New Sparta; am I correct in those assumptions?"

"You sound more knowledgeable about the subject than most European wizards we see, and yes your assumptions are correct, my father is a centaur, a federal judge, mainly working in New Sparta. The first colony in the America's, established in 5AD, when my ancestors fled Greece. The attitude of the Greeks was changing towards centaurs, coming to see us as animals, so every centaur in the area left and tried to find the lost continent of Atlantis, the majority of the refugees found a large island and using their magic hid it from muggle perception; not that the term muggle was even around then, but you follow my meaning."

I nodded at this, blimey a whole new history of the ancient world, an earlier discoverer of America than I had ever heard about, fifteen hundred years before I had ever realised. "Is New Sparta still hidden from muggle perception, even though they've joined the United States?"

"Yes! The whole state is still hidden, the charms were so old and entrenched that when the state legislature tried to remove them, they found they couldn't, but they managed to make it so that outsiders could venture in. If you're hoping to go there, though, I should warn you; you'll never be allowed in. The borders were sealed against European wizards and especially British ones in the late 17th century, when British wizards passed their Statute of Secrecy. The borders will remain closed until a former bewigged pig comes to speak of peace! No one knows what this statement means so the borders will probably remain closed forever!" Both Gabrielle and I gasped at this last statement.

Gabrielle looked at me; "do you think it means you, certainly sounds like it?"

Our companion looked at both of us, his eyes wide, "does this mean anything to you? Most people laugh at the idea of a bewigged pig; but you seem to know something about it! Tell me what you know!"

I swallowed and began to tell the story of how I had lived with my cousin, the boy who lived, and been an overweight bully most of our childhood and his description of me to his friends. Our companion listened carefully to all of this, his eyes growing wider as I carried on. Eventually I came to my discussion in the Ministry with Firenze and how I wanted to try to make peace between centaurs and wizards after centuries of conflict.

Our companion swallowed and looked hard at me, new respect in his eyes. "I will be telling my father of this and you may hear from him in the near future. This puts a new light on a lot of things, please enjoy your honeymoon," he shook mine and Gabrielle's hands. "It's been an honour and a pleasure to meet you both." He made a gesture with his hand, the air behind him shimmered and he took a step back into the shimmer and vanished.

Gabrielle looked at me with awe in her eyes. "you, Dudley, are amazing, the first muggle ever to work for the Ministry of Magic, the first Muggle to pass his N.E.W.T.s, the newest wizard lord, and now spoken of in a three hundred year old prophecy; I still say you'll be Minister for Magic one day."

I sniggered at this comment and told her to make me an appointment when we got back to England to get fitted out with a nice green bowler hat. We made our way from the small reception room we'd arrived in to the front of the airport and caught a perfectly normal taxi to the hotel we were booked into.

The next morning after a leisurely breakfast, Gabrielle and I set off for a stroll towards a shopping mall we'd passed the previous night during the taxi journey to our hotel. The streets were quiet, not many pedestrians about, but a fair amount of vehicular traffic that didn't seem to be paying much attention to people walking on the pavements, guess I should think sidewalk over here. As we were unlikely to be noticed we decided that we would apparate from here to the coordinates we'd been given for the front entrance to the Salem Academy when we'd enquired about visiting the school. Magical America seemed to have a different attitude to magic than Britain, a lot more tolerant.

A few seconds later we stood in the middle of what appeared to be a small park area in the centre of a university complex. There was a small stone obelisk about four feet in height in front of us, with a brass plaque stating Salem Academy of Magic, Please state names and business. Looking askance at Gabrielle, I stated "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, pre-arranged tour of the school!"

"Ah! Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, you're a little earlier than we expected, I'll be with you shortly," a pleasant sounding male voice replied. I looked at Gabby and shrugged; we stood where we were and looked around at what we could see from our vantage point. It seemed to be a perfectly normal university, there were students walking about between buildings, no sign of any magic that we could see though, completely muggle in fact.

I looked up as a large dog seemed to be running towards us. The dog stopped in front of us and I noticed some misconception on my part, not a dog, a wolf. The wolf appeared to stretch itself and suddenly we were confronted with a man looking about forty wearing a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows, black denim jeans and a pair of stylish looking spectacles. "Sorry, I wasn't here to meet you, but you are earlier than we expected, I'm Sebastian Abbot, Principal of the Salem Academy!" He held out a hand for us to shake.

We shook his hand and followed him as he took us to start a tour of his school; "tell me Principal Abbot, what you can of the history of your school, we're very interested to know what we can!"

"Hmm! Well the founder of the school was one Simeon Slytherin who came over with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, he was not officially part of their group, but was fleeing Britain because he had become infected by a werewolf and at that time, the common thing done with werewolves was execution. He was literally fleeing for his life. On arrival in the States, he left the majority of the colonists and went off on his own. He met up with the native Wampanoag Indian tribe and spent several years with them studying their shamanistic magic and in the process learnt how to control his wolf aspect, understanding how the 'wolf' was not a vicious beast to be feared, but a part of him that could help even enhance his own magical abilities. He was appalled by the furore caused by the Salem Witch Trials of the early 1690's and set up a school with the help of the Indian elders to teach and study magic. He called it the Salem Academy of Magic, and even managed to get state funding to study witchcraft and ensure no such travesty of justice ever occurred again. He died in 1721 at the grand age of 121, Boston's first centegenarian; he's buried on the campus. The school later became a college of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has continued to take all students with Magical ability ever since."

"Fascinating, and do you know was he related to the Salazar Slytherin who was one of the co-founders of Hogwarts?"

"It's believed so, but of course there's no real proof, records were rather sketchy around that time although it is reported by the Wampanoag shamans that he was able to 'charm' the snakes of the area, so it's possible that he inherited the Parseltongue ability and put it to use in that way."

"How does your school function in such an environment, we find in England that magic and technology don't mix that well, even having to re-invent non-magical items of technology using magical components and charming them to do the same job."

"I believe I understand why! Most of the magic in England is of the wand user type, the way this interacts with the physical world is similar to radio waves, and then there is that totally unnecessary piece of legislation, the Statute of Secrecy. The bindings and strictures that that put on the magical world. Indeed if that piece of law were repealed tomorrow, you'd find a lot of the problems would sort themselves out. It stopped muggles finding out about magic but stopped wizards from finding about muggles. Our own policy of tentative openness means no such problem exists here, indeed it meant that we were able to assist N.A.S.A. with their Apollo projects and the moon landings. S.A.S.A. was responsible for many of the innovations that made that possible and all those discoveries were made at this school."

"I understand N.A.S.A., but what's S.A.S.A.?"

"Sorcerous American Space Association, of course! Many of our discoveries make it into the muggle world; of course most people aren't aware of the magical connection. You only find out about it if you stumble into it. It's not discussed outside of those people in the know, but there's nothing secretive about it on the whole. Plausible deniability and all that."

"Bloody hell, I've never liked that piece of law, it's denied me a lot of knowledge about my cousin and his world and now I have even more reason to hate it. You mentioned wand user magic, do you mean you can do magic without wands then?"

"Of course, magic is far older than your British society would have you believe, your magical history says that magic came to Britain with the arrival of Merlin, utter tosh, there was magic being practised in Britain before the Romans came. Your history is only concerned with 'wizard' magic though, magic that can be accessed using a wand; but even you have some magic that doesn't use a wand, apparition for example!"

"Fascinating! I've never really thought about that, technically potion making works the same way, you don't use your wand in that either or don't have to. When I was taking my exams, there were mentions of stirring the potion with your wand, mine wasn't a regular wand so I used a wooden spoon; the results were exactly the same!"

"Indeed, you don't even need to be magical to brew your potions, most of our potions in this country are made by the Apothecaries Guild; only about 1% of those has any magical education I believe, or indeed magical blood; and I don't mean wizard blood by that."

"What do you mean then? What sort of magical blood? This is fascinating!"

"Magical blood from magical creatures; veela like your beautiful wife, centaur blood, werewolf, or any magical hybrid, indeed about 45% of muggles are able to perceive and perform some sort of magic with the right education."

As we walked alongside Principal Abbot through the campus, I noticed that nearly everyone we could see was in their 20's, there was the occasional person who looked older. "Excuse me, but I understood the Salem Academy was a school for children, but we're in the middle of a university or college campus, for kids who've graduated high school! Were we wrong in our perceptions there as well?"

"You weren't. The School of Magic at M.I.T. is part of the main campus here; the Salem Academy is attached to that, just not part of the Institute, you'll see when we get there! Sorry about having to walk there by the way, that's part of the security precautions against outsiders finding us. Every visitor has to be escorted to the school on their first visit at least, to get introduced to the wards."

"Introduced?"

"Oh yes, I understand there's something similar in effect at Hogwarts for the students, the first years are taken in by another entrance, so as to get into the warded area without actually being a student yet. Apparently a battered old hat is used to officially enrol the student and allow them proper access into and out of the wards. Bit archaic, but effective I suppose!"

With that he lead us into a brick built building that looked as if it was fairly new and across a large hallway. There was an opulent set of double doors on the left hand wall; that from my recollection of seeing the building from outside would just lead back into another grassy area.

Principal Abbot turned to face us, a grin on his face, "welcome to the Salem Academy!" he opened the doors with a flourish and stood to one side.

Gabrielle and I looked through the doors to see, not the expected grass quadrangle but the inside of what seemed to be a colonial style mansion house. There were fittings in the walls, similar to those at Hogwarts that held flaming torches; here they had normal light bulbs, chandeliers hung from the ceiling, again with light bulbs rather than the candles we were accustomed to.

"Please follow me and I'll take you on a tour of the facilities!"

Authors Note: Welcome to what I hope will be the continuation of my first two stories; A New Beginning, and The Start Of Something New. If a lot seems to happen in this chapter it's needed to set things up for the future of the story. I'll be as quick as I can with updates.

My mention of the Wampanoag Indians and the M.I.T. is used entirely in verisimilitude and no connections should be inferred with the real Indians who were one of the native tribes in the area according to Wikipedia and the school which even myself as a Brit know is in Massachusetts.

The title of this chapter is of course a homage to the film 'An American Werewolf in London'.


	2. Chapter 2

New Resolutions

By Jon08

Chapter 2 Lessons and Laws.

We followed Principal Abbot off to the right to a normal looking door such as you might find in any house; he opened the door, whispering something as he did so.

We immediately seemed to be in what looked like a school gymnasium, the floor appeared to be some kind of protective matting and there were several students involved in what looked to be some sort of kata in one or other of the martial arts. The only thing different to a normal martial arts class was the other end of the hall, were students that I assumed were firing spells at their classmates, some with wands and indeed some with their bare hands. There were flashes of light, puffs of smoke, all flying towards us and the students at the back of the gym. As the students doing kata moved, it was possible to see something unexpected, as the spells hit them, they were either deflected, absorbed or even reflected back at their attackers, they seemed to be doing nothing other than a set of muggle exercises but they were defending themselves against magic. Occasionally there was a flicker about one or other of the students like a heat haze which would quickly vanish again.

The instructor at the front of the hall raised his hand and clicked his fingers, there was a noise like a gunshot when he did and all the students stopped what they were doing and turned to face him. "Very good, now the best form of defence is offence, so try defending yourselves more aggressively; begin!" he clicked his fingers again and the class restarted.

This time there were spells flying in both directions as each lot of students defended themselves and sent their own spells at their opponents. It was fascinating to watch and I was quite engrossed in the class as one student was thrown backwards with quite a bit of force. The principal tapped Gabby and I on the shoulder at this point and gestured us out of the room. I glanced back as we left and the instructor was helping the student who had been thrown up onto his feet again, obviously none the worse for wear.

"Hmm! Second year defence class, no one ever comes to any harm despite what you just saw, there are special wards placed around the gym to prevent any injuries. Students study several forms of muggle martial arts in their first year and in the second incorporate magic into their defence. Quite effective as you can see!"

We were back in the hallway and the Principal was looking at his watch, "you may find this interesting!" he walked back towards the main doors that had let us into this strange building in the first place. He placed his hands on the doors and muttered something under his breath, opening the doors outwards instead of inwards as was to be expected from our entry. We were outside in a meadow with a hedgerow barrier all around it. We could see a five bar gate off to the left and it was through this that we were led.

Instead of the expected adjacent field that was visible over the fence, we were on the edge of a small wood, children's voices coming from within. As we followed the principal in we could see children of about eleven or twelve in groups with a basket and a leaflet between them, occasionally they would stop to look at some plant or other and cut some plant or other and place it in their basket and continue looking at the plants around them.

"First year potions class gathering ingredients for their next project, it's beneficial for them to realise what the ingredients to their potions look like in the natural state."

I was impressed at this, from what I could remember of my first year potions class that I had had in the daydream, there was none of this. I could have been cutting up Belladonna leaves instead of the potato leaves the particular potion had called for. It seemed a better way to me, than just being handed the appropriate leaves.

"Of course, everything is checked before they mix the potion, extra credit is earned if they get everything right and don't have to use school supplies. It helps after graduation if they wish to progress further and take a degree as an apothecary."

The principal led us back through the meadow and into the school again, the doors opening inwards as they had the first time we had one through. A traditional sounding school bell rang, "oh dear is it that time already, I hadn't realised?" There were suddenly loads of children and teenagers descending into the hallway we were in, all talking animatedly amongst themselves. They went to the doorway that previously had led to the gymnasium, only instead of opening the doors outwards as the principal had do to show us the gymnasium, they slid the doors to the left or right depending on which side they were entering. Through the doors, we could see what looked like a normal school canteen, dining room a long counter with several choices on offer and several small tables that would allow about six students to sit at each one.

Principal Abbot preceded us in, "welcome to the Dining room, would you care to join me in a spot of lunch?" Several of the students began to move aside to allow us to go to the front of the queue, but the Principal waved them to carry on as normal. I watched as the students ahead of us make their choices indicating to the ordinary looking school dinner-ladies what they wanted and taking their meals, some paying at a till, others just taking a seat.

"Why are some students paying and others just going to the tables to eat their meals; is there a difference in the type of students here?"

"Err! No! The difference is in the type of meal they're having. Students who take the options offered on the main menu; get their meals as part of their package at the school, all meals are included; but if a student orders something different, then they have to pay, all students are given a weekly allowance to spend as they wish."

We finally arrived at the front of the queue and I looked at the options available, there was what appeared to be roast chicken with several choices of accompanying vegetables or what was described as a beef curry; it looked quite appetising, then there were burgers, pizza, and the ubiquitous chips, or fries I should say being in the states. Attached to the plates with burgers, pizza and fries there was a small sign with a dollar sign on it, I assumed this meant these meals were on the paying menu. I decided to try the curry and indicated so, Gabby did the same, I made my way to the till to pay for my meal as obviously I was not a student, but the cashier nodded at some sign from the principal and waved us through.

We occupied a table off to the side with the Principal and for the next few minutes the only sound was the sound of cutlery and three adults enjoying a meal, I have to admit it certainly seemed a lot better than the food I used to get at Smeltings; I think there was actually real beef in this curry as opposed to the soya or dog food that my school meals had always struck me as being made of. When we had all finished, the principal inquired if we would like anything to drink, Gabby and I both decided on coffee; he nodded and spoke quietly into the air and snapped his fingers. A large pot of coffee and three cups appeared on the table and we served ourselves.

"Now, I imagine you have some questions to ask me, at this point, I know I would have!"

I thought for a few moments, wondering how to phrase my question. "I'm confused about the doors and intrigued as well, each door seems to open several different ways and depending on how you open it, affects where you end up. How is that achieved?"

"Each door is basically set up like a portkey, only instead of acting on you personally so you get the unpleasant yanking in your gut, it acts on the doorway; you literally step forward into your new location. It's a bit more complicated than that but that gives you a general idea behind it. As the number of classes offered expanded over the years, it was found that larger and larger premises were needed, but the original link to the school set by Slytherin was wanted, so this was devised. There's several spells involved including space warping, teleportation or portkeying and a variation on the Fidelius charm. All classrooms and study areas are accessible through one or other of the doors in the school, and there are several hundred classrooms etc accessed by about 70 doors. I could show you them all, there's a map in the Principals Office, if you want to see it!"

"I don't think we really need to, it was just a point of curiosity, is it all controlled by how you open the doors or there something else behind how it works, I noticed the doors to this canteen are the same ones to the gym, but you opened them differently, are all the doors that simple to work!"

"Indeed not! Most of the common rooms, canteen, gym, assembly hall, some classrooms etc are that simple to operate, but others need a password or charm to enter depending on where they lead to. Each student is given or taught the appropriate 'password' when they begin taking classes in a particular classroom, it all works out quite well.

"Fascinating," I muttered as I took a sip of my coffee.

"I noticed you have human staff in your canteen, is it all human run and managed or do you have house elves running things, behind the scenes," asked Gabrielle. I know this was something that was much on her mind and she heartily approved of the changes to the lives of house elves that I had been able to make in Britain.

"No, we have a variety of peoples working throughout the school, magic, muggle and crossbreeds; it's to our lasting shame that we have no house elves in the US!"

"What! You should be proud that your society does not perpetuate their enslavement by wizard kind!"

"You misunderstand me, and their enslavement is why there are no house elves in the whole of the States. At the end of the civil war, when slavery was abolished, the house elves were freed as well, and they were told that they could take employment where the liked, but, to our shame, they took being set free as shameful and within 6 months there was not a house elf alive in the States, it's as if they all willed themselves to die, no encouragement could keep them alive. Our shame comes from the fact that in our ignorance we caused the extermination of a species in our country. If someone from abroad comes on vacation to the US and brings a house elf with them, we ignore the fact that they essentially have an enslaved being with them."

"I believe I perceive what you are saying and understand it, my first encounter with house elves made me see their life as slavery, but now I believe I have got most of the UK wizarding world to see them as a paid servant, or even lodger who pays their rent in kind, rather than cash. Indeed most house elves in Britain these days have their own clothing and indeed I know of one that took to freedom very well, but Dobby was supposed to have been slightly eccentric by most of the other ones I've encountered."

"How on earth do you manage to get a house elf to accept clothing and not set it free, from what I understand that was one of the ways to dismiss them from service, of course I only know this from our history you understand?"

"Very easy, don't give them clothes, give them the materials to make their own, after all if a house elf is dressed in a pillowcase, it's still wearing some kind of clothing, we just allowed them to dress better. We haven't got very far with the idea of payment yet though. They just don't seem to understand the concept of money, if you give them a Galleon, they won't spend it, 'it was a gift, and they won't use a gift', seems to be the general attitude there. We had several house elves at the ministry involved in the making of a computer that would work in the wizarding world and they were paid a nominal fee for every one they built, they've never touched the money, it just sits in the bank. The only payment they seem to accept is the praise from their master for a job well done."

"Quite extra-ordinary Mr. Dursley, you seem to have achieved something in the British Wizarding world, I assume from your attitude to the treatment of house elves you must have been muggleborn and raised, so are you a half-blood wizard or complete muggle born; not that those things mean as much here in the states. We are aware of the British prejudices in that regard. I will admit that I was quite intrigued when I received your letter asking to see the school, most British wizards don't even like to admit that magic exists in the New World."

"Not exactly, I was born and raised a complete muggle, my aunt, my mother's sister was muggleborn and went to Hogwarts, but I only became aware of magic when my cousin who lived with us after the death of his parents received his letter. I'm ashamed to say he was not well treated by myself and my parents. It was only after he saved my life before his fifth year that I actually began to see him as a person in his own right, not my personal punch bag. When the wizard world arrange for my family and I to be moved to safety during the final end of Voldemort, I came to learn something about magic and the history of the magical world. I made it my personal quest to find my cousin afterwards and apologise for the way I'd treated him."

"Interesting! So how did you come to be working for your ministry, and as head of social services, which to be quite honest surprised me, I didn't even know they had such a department?"

"They didn't! After the abuse that myself and my parents had made Harry suffer whilst he was with our family, I decided to go into social work as a career and prevent it happening to others. Whilst my family had been in hiding, we'd been issued with a special type of wand that enabled me to access certain magical areas of the town we were being hidden in; I applied for this to be continued after we were allowed to go home, in order that I could get back in touch with Harry after the war, I like to think we've come to be friends and indeed proper cousins to each other since then. It came as a surprise to me when I received a letter asking me to an interview as social worker for the ministry. I got the job and through some interesting circumstances realised that I could perform real magic with the wand they'd given me. Through my learning to do magic with the help of Hogwarts itself, apparently I'm now the head of my own family and a wizard lord! Whatever that really means!"

"Really! How did you come to be appointed a wizard lord, the last person I heard of it happening to, was Nicholas Flamel in the 1480's I believe? I thought your Wizengamot had stopped awarding such an outdated distinction on wizards soon after?"

"According to what I was told, our Wizengamot only has the power to create a head of family; the right to create a wizard lord was not given that body. Only the court of Charlemagne has the ability to create a wizard lord, or that's what I was told, it all sounds a bit farfetched, or pardon the pun, magical to me!"

"Now that is very interesting, from what I know of the British system of wizarding law, your being a wizard lord gives you a special status amongst the community, the distinction of actually being able to make and change the way your society operates. A head of family is only allowed to vote in your Wizengamot to agree or disagree to laws being changed. A wizard lord is actually able to suggest and make the changes in law. I wonder what we can expect to be made by you in the future."

"I didn't know that, of course I haven't formerly taken my seat in the Wizengamot yet, not being 25, is being delayed until my cousin Harry takes his seat as well at the end of July."

"This cousin of yours, with a Birthday at the end of July wouldn't happen to be the same person who defeated that nutcase Voldemort a few years ago was it, the only wizard in Europe we've heard of that's managed to find the shield to the killing curse?"

"That's my cousin, Harry Potter; he defeated Voldemort, but by disarming him so that his own killing curse killed him. But from what I've heard he's only outlived the curse by luck on another occasion. I've never heard of a shield for the Avada, and he's never mentioned it to me if he has. That's why it's an unforgivable curse in the UK and Europe."

"That makes his survival even more impressive, the Avada as you call it is quite legal in the states, it's even in the constitution under the right to bear arms. There's no use being able to bear arms, if you can't use it in lethal defence, of course, there's usually legal proceeding if it is used, but defence is always taken as mitigating circumstances."

We spent the afternoon touring the other parts of the school, the dormitories for the students who boarded, which were arranged by year, much like mine had been at Smeltings. There was apparently no division by houses here. Indeed it came a surprise to me that not all the students were boarders like at Hogwarts, some students used a portkey to come to school and go home every evening. The medical facilities made the hospital wing at Hogwarts look quite outdated; the whole place looked like the most modern hospital I'd ever seen.

Gabrielle and I had both been exceeding impressed with the Academy and indeed we had talked light-heartedly about the possibility of sending a child of our own there instead of Hogwarts or Beauxbatons, as Hogwarts tended not to have too many veela students. All in all, this had been a most productive day...

A/N Sorry for the long delay with this chapter, problems with work and a death in the family delayed my writing and posting. I am having some trouble putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard here; it was quite a challenge to try and show how the lessons differed from Hogwarts as well; but I do hope the next chapter will be up quicker.

According to Wikipedia, Nicholas Flamel lived from 1330 to 1418, but of course we all know the truth that he was still alive in 1991 as mentioned in Philosopher's Stone. If your computer has the correct magical encryption codings check out Wizapedia, I did, Ha Ha...


	3. Chapter 3

New Resolutions

By Jon08

Chapter 3: Conceptionis, Corvus ex Centaurus.

After our tour of the Salem Academy, Gabrielle and I spent a few days playing tourist around Boston, Cape Cod, Lexington, places we had heard about. We enjoyed this period of quiet time just seeing the sights and enjoying each other's company.

It was on the sixth day of our honeymoon, when I woke to a sight that caused me some distress, as I slowly came around, I noticed Gabby lying in bed next to me, soaking in sweat with a smile on her face. However I tried I couldn't wake her from her sleep, and although she seemed to be sweating profusely she actually felt cold to the touch. What was wrong with her, I grabbed my mobile phone from the table beside my bed, the hotel phone was on the opposite side of the bed and I was too worried to get up and cross the room. I quickly dialled 999, this being the number for emergency services in Britain. For a few seconds my phone tried to connect and then said unknown number. I hit myself on the head with my phone and dialled 911, I was in the states and it was a different number, plonker.

The voice of the operator calmed me down somewhat, but I was still concerned as I told her what was happening, "right Mr. Dursley, you say your wife is unconscious, sweating and yet very cold to the touch, is there anything else you can tell me that may give the ambulance crew any idea what to expect when they arrive?"

I thought for a moment about what I had learned about magical America, "err! My wife is part veela," hoping I wouldn't have to explain this or be in trouble for breaching any laws by telling the operator this. In Britain telling a muggle this would be seen as breaching the Statute of Secrecy, veela were magical beings and you never talked to muggles about magic.

"Veela, Mr. Dursley, did I hear you correctly? Just let me check the database!" There was an agonising delay of several minutes which in all probability was just a few seconds, but in my panicked state felt like nearly an hour. "Mr. Dursley, do you know how to take a pulse?" I vaguely grunted something in the positive. "Very good, please take your wife's pulse!"

I took hold of Gabby's wrist and counted the beats watching the second hand of my watch. "It's very slow, about 30 beats a minute," I told the operator in a panic.

"Very good, Mr. Dursley, now please try to open her eyes and look at the pupils, what are they like?" I lifted her eyelids one by one and looked at each eye in turn. Her eyes were her usual pale blue, but there was no sign of pupil in either eye, indeed, her eyes seemed particularly vivid in colour, and I told this to the operator. "Very well, Mr. Dursley, from the information I have in front of me, your wife is in no danger, the emergency crew should be with you momentarily and will do some other tests but I don't believe they'll need to take her to a hospital!"

There was a knock on the door and a voice called out, "emergency technician, you called an ambulance." I called out to the person behind the door that I was coming and told the operator that the ambulance had arrived and got up to open the door.

There were two people outside the door in green overalls, one of those ambulance trolley things between them piled with several large bags; a hotel porter with them, I let the two ambulance people in, and the hotel porter gave me a nod and set off down the corridor to the lifts. I turned back the bed; one of the technicians was shining a penlight in Gabrielle's eyes, "hmm! Paradoxical papillary reaction," he said aloud and his partner noted this on a large form he had on a clipboard. "Pulse 30, strong; respiration, 30, shallow; temperature 35," he said as he pulled a thermometer from her armpit. He waved his hands in the air over Gabrielle and muttered something under his breath. He smiled at his colleague and stood back up from where he had been kneeling by the bedside. "Erm! Just enquiring Mr. Dursley, what time did you and your wife go to sleep last night?"

I blushed and admitted it had been sometime after two! He looked at his watch, "your wife should wake up in about an hour; she's perfectly fine. I'll leave it up to her to tell you! I would advise you to order breakfast via room service as she won't feel like getting up straight away, but that's perfectly normal." He grinned at his colleague, who grinned back and placed the clipboard back on top of the trolley and made his way to the door, and they both let themselves out. Now what the bloody hell had that all been about?

I looked at my watch, it was just after 9, what was all that grinning about between the two ambulance technicians; and what was this about Gabby waking up in an hour? On the other hand, they hadn't seemed concerned, in fact almost smirking about something with each other. I got up from the bed and started pacing back and forth in the room; damn those men, couldn't they have told me what was happening instead of being sp bloody cryptic. I gave a look at my watch again and thought I needed to relax for when she woke up; I hope they were right about her waking up in about an hour. I made my way to the shower and proceeded to try and get myself ready for the day, I had to do something or I'd go mad.

I was sitting nervously in one of the armchairs in the suite, after I'd showered and dressed for the day; the cup of coffee I'd made for myself slowly going cold on the table beside me, when I heard Gabrielle sigh and mutter something, then she slowly rolled herself onto her side and looked across at me, "you're up early! What time is it?"

I got up and almost ran to the bed and sat down beside her, taking her hand in mine, her skin felt perfectly normal now, dry and warm. I breathed a sigh of relief and gave her a quick kiss, "it's after ten, and I was up at a perfectly decent time, I had to call the paramedics about you this morning, you were sweating something terrible and felt so cold. They weren't very helpful, just said you were fine and they'd leave it up to you to tell me. I've been worried sick, I'm sure the hotel will charge us for wear and tear in the carpet where I've been pacing up and down."

Gabrielle looked at me wide eyed, "what other symptoms did I have? Please I need to know?"

"Slow, strong pulse; fast shallow breathing and almost hypothermic and something about paradoxical pupil reaction, whatever that means!"

"It means that for the next nine month's I'll be throwing up and getting fat, now is there any chance of breakfast, I feel like I could eat a hippogriff?"

I looked at her in alarm, what was that all about throwing up and getting fat for the next nine months... NINE MONTHS... "Gabby, are you pregnant?"

She looked at me through her eyelashes; then broke into a grin, "somewhere up to eight hours pregnant; so it's a bit early to be telling anyone yet, but I've definitely undergone conception. You'd better not tell me you didn't want children this early, because I'm afraid you've no voice in the matter!"

"I'm ecstatic, I wasn't expecting to get pregnant so quickly, but I couldn't be happier, me a dad, who'd believe it?"

"I would! Now please Dudley can I have something to eat, I'm positively famished, I feel like I haven't eaten for a week!" I dialled room service and as she told me what she wanted I relayed it over the phone; she wasn't joking when she said she was hungry, she'd ordered enough food to rival the type of meal the old me had put away when Harry was living with us at Privet Drive.

As she sat on the bed, slowly making her way through several eggs, sausages and enough bacon to feed a whole family, I asked what had occurred with her to make her look so ill.

"I told you that veela, require magic in order to conceive; well whilst magic is accomplishing this, the body basically shuts down, goes into autopilot mode. There is no energy to spare to allow normal interaction with society, so the veela is unconscious."

"Okay! But what was that paradoxical pupil reaction, the ambulance guy was talking about, sounded like gobbledegook to me?"

"I only understand some of why it occurs, but what it is I understand fully, it is one of the telltale symptoms of what is happening. Whilst conception is happening the pupils of the veela's eyes act oddly. Normally if you shine a light into someone's eyes, their pupils contract, get smaller; whilst a veela is conceiving, her pupils open up when a light is shone in them, the pupils get larger. A 'paradoxical' reaction, something that shouldn't happen."

"Ok! I understand that bit, but what was all this about what time we went to sleep last night?" I could feel my face heating up and I was sure I was blushing like an overripe tomato.

She looked me in the eye, blushing herself; "conception usually takes about eight hours, so he was checking when we went to sleep to see how long I had been unconscious." She broke off here and looked down through her eyelashes at the plate in front of her, obviously too embarrassed to say anymore. I could feel my own face getting hotter; I could probably fry an egg on my face the way it felt, as the implications of what that portion of the conversation had meant. A lot more than I had realised at the time.

Gabby was sat in bed still, drinking a cup of tea, when she yawned so widely that indeed if she hadn't just awoken, I would assume she hadn't slept for a week. "How come you're so tired you've only just woken up?"

"I wasn't asleep; I've just done the magical equivalent of running a marathon, that's why I'm so tired and hungry. I'm not going to be much company today, all I'm likely to do is eat and sleep. I'm happy this has happened, though I wasn't expect..." I looked down at her wondering why she'd stopped mid sentence; her eyes were closed and her breathing had slowed. She wasn't joking about tired! She'd fallen asleep again.

I gently put her head on the pillows and removed what little was left of the breakfast tray from the bed and tucked her in with a kiss on the forehead. Bloody hell, I was going to be a father, I knew it would have happened eventually and we'd both agreed that we wanted children, but this was all a bit quick, we'd been married less than a week and she was pregnant already. Granted it was still nine months until I became a father officially, but jeepers, this was going to take some getting used to.

Gabrielle looked so peaceful and contented just sleeping there in the bed, I sat and watched her for a while, trying to absorb the fact that my life had started to change in ways I hadn't really come to terms with yet, and wouldn't for nearly a year. After about half an hour of thinking about our future family, I decided that I couldn't just get my head round that yet, I needed something to occupy me whilst she slept. I went to our cases and took out one of the books I had purchased at the shop on the MIT campus; 'A Wizarding History of The Union', and started reading.

'The first colonists to the states on the Mayflower were unaware that a small party of wizards was amongst them; the initial wizard families that came across were one Jean Malfoi and his young bride and Simeon Slytherin who was running for his life having being affected by a werewolf bite. The Malfoi family were coming to the states to begin a new life, him being the third son and having no place in the family inheritance and wishing to make a new life in the new world. It is known that they owed a life debt to Slytherin as it was during saving the life of the young bride that he became infected with the curse of the wolf. During his first transformation on the voyage, they apparently caged and drugged him, so as to avoid his infection of any other passengers.

On arrival in the states, the Malfoi family began to settle in with the rest of the colonists and Slytherin left the colony in order to avoid any further complications for them. Jean and his young bride were able to make a living in the colony, due to his potion knowledge and magic as a healer; although at this point the European wizarding colony had not implemented their Statute of Secrecy, most wizards would not openly perform magic in front of muggles, but would make use of their abilities in private to be of use if they could. Muggle perceptions of magic at this time were supposedly one of superstition and suspicion. The European churches at the time were in a period of change and several groups of non-conformist groups were breaking away, the settlers on the Mayflower being such a group.

A lot of the misconceptions about magic on behalf of the Christian Church stem from an old corruption of words by the church forefathers. The main pre-Christian religion of Europe was Wicca and its worshipers called themselves witches and wizards, indeed at this time there was no 'pureblood' policy and most wizards lived happily in their local communities. The early Roman Catholic authorities in attempt to repress this religion proclaimed that all non Christians were wicked (a corruption of Wicca) witches and were evil. _{A/N This is true, indeed what a lot of muggles perceive as witchcraft these days has no collection to Wicca, and is Satanism, i.e. Anti-Christianity; and has no connection to the wizard community in general}._ Indeed most of the wizarding world had openly professed Christianity in an attempt to the only connection to the Ancient Wicca faith was in the naming and language of some spells...'

I looked up from my reading as Gabrielle muttered something as she again woke up, rubbing her eyes, "mmm! Dudley, what time is it?"

I looked at the clock on the wall, "err, about 5, how are you feeling now? Any better?"

"Well! I feel hungry again, and a bit more refreshed than the last time I awoke, Fleur or Mum mentioned to me that I'd feel so completely drained though. I feel like I could sleep for a week, although from what I understand, I'll be back to normal by tomorrow."

We sat together on the edge of the bed eating together from the trolley the room service guy had brought our meal up on, "what do you think we should call her?" she asked, her eyes not leaving the plate in front of her.

"Her? It has an equal chance of being a boy, you know!"

"Sorry to disappoint, but wizard / veela births are nearly always female, that's why most wizards think there are only female veela. I think I've heard of one male birth in the last 1000 years; so I hope you don't mind a girl?"

"I don't care! If we have a daughter, it's fine with me! I like the tradition in my mum's family of naming the girls after flowers; my aunt was a Lily; mum, Petunia; and if I remember my grandmother was called Rose, I never met her, she died in my aunt's 6th year! I have absolutely no idea what dad's mum was called, she was always referred to as Grandma Dursley."

"I would like to name her Marie, after my grandmother, and it is my middle name, but I've no objection to flower name as second name, after all my sister is called 'flower' in English; but we've got ages to think yet! Anyway, what have you been doing all day anyway to keep yourself occupied, I'm sure you must have been bored?"

"Reading, mainly, one of those books we picked up at the school, it's quite fascinating; there was only one wizard family on the Mayflower and the only purebloods available for their children to marry would have been their own siblings. One daughter married a local Indian Medicine Man, and the eldest son married a Dutch farmer's daughter. The youngest daughter was a squib who married a teacher, but all the grandchildren were magical and stronger magically than their parents; so they decided that they would not refer to them as half-bloods or muggle-borns. That seems to have been the start of the American attitude to blood status and indeed the tolerance and acceptance of other types of magic..." I was going to continue, but suddenly felt I had lost my audience and indeed Gabrielle was lying on the bed again, fast asleep. I cleared up the remainder of the food and put the trolley aside for later collection and settled down to try and read a little more.

I had been trying to read for about an hour, but my mind kept drifting to the image of Gabrielle holding a blonde blue eyed little girl; of a blonde toddler; our daughter going to Hogwarts or indeed Beauxbatons. I was totally engrossed in the imagery of our future daughter, when there was a tapping at the window of our suite. What could that be? We were seven floors up, who could have gotten up here?

I drew my wand from my sleeve and made my way to the window. There was a large bird with black feathers, a black beak and indeed even black legs. The really unusual thing about it was the roll of parchment or paper tied to its leg. Oh well it was different to an owl, but I suppose American wizards must use these birds to carry messages, not that I knew any American wizards that might wish to write to me. I went to open the window, only to unfortunately knock the poor bird from its temporary perch as the window opened outwards. It gave a high pitched screech that sounded if it was saying 'aaah' and flew into the room.

It settled on the handle of the room service trolley and gave me a look as if to say, 'why did you have to go and do that?'

"I'm sorry, it was an accident!" as I said this the bird's glare grew less and it gave a look at its leg with the note tied to it and then back at me. I cautiously made my way to the bird and untied the roll of parchment from its leg. The bird took a few pecks at the food on the trolley, gave me another dark look and flew back into the night; a quite different bird to what British wizards use, some sort of crow perhaps. It was fascinating observing things that were different over here, even if they were the same.

I looked at the letter in my hand, who knew me in the States to be writing to me?

Dear Mr. Dursley,

I received an interesting call from my son, Alexander, in regard to yourself that may have repercussions on our society. You believe and after some investigation of my own I also believe you may be the bewigged pig of prophecy.

I am therefore extending an invitation to you and your wife to visit me in the State of New Sparta. The letter you are currently reading has been set to act as a portkey. You should both be touching it and speak aloud the name of the Greek Goddess of Magic, this will activate the portkey. I will be awaiting you around 11.00 at your destination.

Yours in anticipation

Theseus Alexanderson.

Blimey! What had I started with my casual conversation with our customs official? And who was the Greek Goddess of Magic, how was I going to activate this portkey, if I didn't know the name?

Please review and let me know how I'm doing. The next chapter will see the fulfilment of one of Dudley's prophecies from The Start of Something New.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Centaur Isle.

It was sometime in the middle of the night when I was woken by Gabrielle, she'd got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and I was fast asleep in the chair, I'd been reading in. "Why are you asleep in a chair, how come you didn't come to bed?"

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked blurrily at her, "just thinking and trying to work something out!" I handed her the note, got up from my chair, made a vague gesture to the en suite and collected my stuff for a shower.

A few minutes later, I emerged in my pyjamas, and made my way to the bed. Gabrielle had the note in her hands and had a thoughtful look in her eyes. "I know this, it was something that was taught in our History of Magic class at Beauxbatons, but I can't remember it just now!"

I took the note from her and placed it on the bedside table, "well, by all means think about it; but I wouldn't say the name with that in your hand, I don't want to turn up in my night clothes several hours early." I leaned across and gave her a kiss and we both cuddled together in the bed.

I awoke several hours later to find the bed empty and cold, I could hear the shower running, and indeed Gabrielle came out a few minutes later, rubbing her hair in a towel. "So, you're finally awake sleepyhead. It's nearly nine, I was beginning to wander if you were pregnant as well; the amount of sleep you seemed to be needing. I managed to remember the name of the Greek Goddess of Magic this morning. I thought we'd go down to breakfast and then take a walk outside, we can portkey from outside the hotel so the muggles working here don't see any unnecessary magic!"

I nodded in agreement and made my way to the bathroom, to give myself a shave and get ready for a day in New Sparta, I really had no idea what to expect, but I at least wanted to look presentable, not some unshaven lout.

I emerged wearing a pair of trousers and a shirt, no tie, I hated those things with a passion and I never wore them if I could avoid it, didn't even bother at work, most of my colleagues just wore wizard robes; I found as well that a smart but casual look was better for meeting the parents I visited, a tie seemed to make me appear like a stick in the mud, stuffed shirt kind of person, I only used 1 tie; black for funerals.

Gabby and I made our way down to the main dining area and took our time over breakfast and eventually made our way from the hotel around 10.30 to find somewhere to leave from. We made our way to a small grassed area; that seemed to be deserted and not be overlooked by cameras. Gabrielle took the letter from her bag and handed it to me, keeping hold of it herself as well. Checking to see we were both touching the letter, she said "Hecate!" in a clear and determined manner.

I braced myself for the usual portkey feeling of being yanked through the air by my belly button, but instead I felt like bubbles were popping all over me and then I was somewhere else, obviously the centaurs had some different way of portkeying.

I looked around at my new location; we appeared to be on a small sandy beach with no one else in sight. The beach gave the impression that it was hardly the best place to get to, not on the main tourist routes anyway. Was this some sort of joke, we were on a deserted beach in the middle of nowhere and no visible means of returning to our departure point?

Suddenly Gabrielle gave a gasp and pointed out to the sea, there seemed to be some sort of disturbance out beyond the bay. The water seemed to be being sprayed up by something. As it came nearer to us, we could see a centaur running on the water towards our location. He pulled up to a stop on the beach in front of us. "My apologies, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, I should have been here to meet you. I hope you are ready to see the centaur isle, or the state of New Sparta, being its newest name. The way to the island is a little disconcerting to the uninitiated I must warn you; one of the drawbacks of the charms my ancestors put in place to hide it in the first place."

I looked at Gabrielle, and could see the excitement in her eyes; she was looking forward to this as much as I was. "I think we're ready, what do we need to do in order to get there?"

He nodded and turned back to face the sea, "if you would each take one of my hands and walk with me. Don't think about what you're about to do. Everything will be fine." I took his left hand and Gabrielle his right and we began walking towards the sea; before I had time to think about the fact, we were walking on water. "There's a special charm on the water here, it acts solid to any centaurs and their guests." He released our hands, "once you have been to the island the charm will work for yourselves as well, unless it is decided otherwise."

We walked beside him for maybe a couple of hundred yards or so, and then he stopped. "This will feel a little strange, maybe even uncomfortable, but please don't worry; you will come to no harm." He snapped his fingers, there appeared to be some sort of barrier in front of us, a shimmer in the air, "please step through, you'll find yourself in New Sparta." I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and stepped through the shimmer. I felt as if I was walking under water for a moment, then so cold I could hardly breathe and then I was standing on a small beach similar to the one we had left a while back, but this beach was not as isolated. There was a stone building of similar construction to one's I had seen ruins of on the television, stone columns, a huge stone roof above; there appeared to be a trident carved over the main entrance.

"Ah! I see you've noticed the Temple of Poseidon; we still worship the old Gods here in New Sparta, although mostly we have a secular society. We believe that religion should have no place in running a society, that's why we managed to get that into the original constitution, and as well, we wanted no interference from someone trying to change our religion."

"For a state that no one in Europe seems to have heard of, you seem to have had a lot of input into the affairs of the United States!"

"Well you can blame much of that on the ridiculous piece of Legislation; you call the Statute of Secrecy. Not only did it stop your non-wizarding population from learning about the wizard world, but it stopped them learning about anything that concerned any type of magic at all. So a state that was mainly occupied by centaurs, a mythical magical race was also removed from all knowledge. The thing that surprises our state legislative body most of all was that yourself, the non-magical relative of a wizard would be involved in our own magical history. Understand that when the prophecy of a bewigged pig was made about our eventual reconciliation with wizarding Europe was made, it was seen as saying it would never happen; I mean whoever heard of a pig wearing a wig; no offence meant of course!"

"None taken! In fact I disagree slightly with my cousin, who incidentally was the one who called me a pig in a wig, the appellation should have been whale in a wig, I really was grossly overweight. It was only through magical intervention of another sort that made me realise a lot of things about myself."

"Really! Do go on, this is most interesting!"

"It was in the summer that my cousin and I were 15; that a pair of dementors were set on my cousin and I; my cousin saved me from the dementors, which got him into a lot of trouble. The point is, however, their effect on me. I began to see myself as others did; a fat, ignorant bully. That and the headmaster of Harry's school telling my parents that they had been abusing me, I began to realise I needed to change. I hope I've managed to do a good job of it!"

"Hmm! From what I've heard from Principal Abbot at the school in Massachusetts, you seem to be a very polite and interesting specimen of English wizardry, born a Muggle as they reckon things, found out a lot of things about their so called history; managed to learn their magic through a most curious route and gotten yourself a Wizard Patent of Nobility. On top of that a member of our race has spoken with you about peace between his own and wizard kind. What are your thoughts on obtaining peace in this instance?"

"At this point, I really don't know, most wizards still seem to be stuck in some kind of rut, anything that is not pure-blood wizard is beneath contempt in their eyes. It's only recently that they've allowed the goblins to invest in muggle banking, at my suggestion, but I know from something's I've heard that this is seen by some as allowing sheep to graze in the same field as cows, just animals interacting. They have no real concept of equality, and regard the centaurs as animals, despite from what I've learnt, even as a muggle. Centaurs are mentioned in Greek mythology, which predates their version of history, but this is ignored, the centaurs have to eke out a hunter gatherer existence in the Hogsmeade forest, living in crude mud huts, seen about as important as a horse; no offence meant of course!"

"And what is your ideal solution to this problem, if you could have it of course?"

"I would see goblins and centaurs given full rights as citizens of the magical community, other types of magical creature having the same rights as well. A colleague of mine wants this as well for all magical creatures, but unfortunately I begin to see a problem with how she operates, not that I'll ever tell her that! She can be relied on to find out any amount of information from many a diverse source, but can't make the logical leap on HOW to make a change. A simple case in point was the issue of house elf clothing, quite by accident I managed to solve that, by letting a house elf make its own clothing, admittedly I haven't managed to work out some other of their conditions of employment yet, but I'm working on it. As for how to get equality for centaurs, I really am in the dark at the moment; we need to find some way first of getting the wizard community to acknowledge their intelligence and uniqueness as a species, not as half breeds. I have the information from the interview that Firenze had with me, but no way to divulge it to the population in general, they would have no idea what it all meant and most likely see it as fiction any way!"

"You really do seem to know quite a bit and have some interesting ideas, but as you say no way to get them sorted out. The state of New Sparta would be willing to assist you in the quest, but as your wizarding society has cut itself off from us with their Statute, there is no way for us to communicate this to them. Any communication from us would be seen to be blank, because that ridiculous piece of legal rubbish would stop them from acknowledging the existence of a sentient centaur. Your only real hope is to get that law abolished, there really is no need for it any more. The existence of their magical world is put in more danger because of it; indeed our calculations say that if more interaction with the muggle world does not happen, then the pure bloods will breed themselves out of existence in about 200 years.

"You mean there'll be no wizards in Britain in a couple of hundred years?"

"No! I mean there will be no pureblood wizards in Britain or indeed most of Europe. What they perceive as magical blood is no more than a genetic quirk of fate, similar to red hair say, constant inbreeding is weakening this gene in their descendants; they will need fresh blood to bolster their viability. You see it even now, most pureblood families only manage to have one child of magical ability, if they manage to have more children, then the possibility of what they call squibs arises. Of course if a so called squib marries a pureblood, the problem is still there, too close to the gene pool, but marrying a muggle can help to boost the genetic propensity for magic, so the ability will usually surface after a couple of generations. Then you have the muggleborns where magic occurs spontaneously from no discernible source; it's really random mutation, like two perfectly normal parents having an albino child, it can happen anywhere!"

During this conversation we had been following our host and guide through the dunes, inland, suddenly the view changed. There was a city before us, but different from any city I had ever seen, there were no skyscrapers, in fact no building over one storey tall, they were all examples of what I suppose would be called classic Grecian architecture; the roads between the buildings were simple grassed pathways, not the usual tarmac and concrete that I was used to. All in all it was breathtaking in its simplicity and its beauty; it seemed to grow naturally from the surrounding countryside.

"Welcome to Metropolis, the State Capital of New Sparta and the oldest city in the new world, its original infrastructure is nearly two millennia old, built on first arrival after we had warded our home from prying eyes. New Sparta is the second largest state in the union at 594,740 sq miles. _(A/N Alaska is 1st at 663,267 sq miles; Texas 2__nd __at 268,580 sq miles according to Wikipedia)._ When the island was first discovered it started a few hundred metres off what is now the Florida coastline; was bordered to the north by the nearby island now called Bermuda, and the Azores in the east. We made the island unplottable, covered it being missing with illusion of ocean, and protected from invasion, but somehow our spells managed to tap into the power of the Earth, so the area is slightly out of phase with the rest of the planet. I believe that muggle conspiracy theories call it 'the Bermuda Triangle'."

"Bloody hell! The Bermuda Triangle is real, and you're saying centaurs are responsible."

"Unfortunately, yes. In years gone past, the technology of the muggles was simple and couldn't be affected by the spells we placed here to hide ourselves. When such things as satellites and electronics interact with the magical wards around New Sparta, they go wildly wrong. I understand that the island isn't even visible on some site on the internet; what is it now, giggle earth or something?"

"It's Google Earth, and I understand what you mean, I've looked on it. There's open sea in the area you occupy! What happens when a ship or something tries to sail through the island? That must be a problem!"

"The ship is diverted, they actually travel round it, the journey takes the same time as it would due to an extra charm we put into the unplottable wards; time aboard said vessel is altered so there is no change in journey time, unfortunately has another side effect, the island is slightly out of sync in time with the rest of the world by about half a second, yet another thing to our dismay."

"Why should that affect you personally?"

"Digital timing young man, the rest of the world is so in sync with itself that time is measured accurately to the pico-second, (AN pico-second=0.000 000 000 001 seconds, the amount of time a pico-second is; is from Wikipedia, the accuracy of computers etc is my own conversational understanding, no reference to current specs etc), this means certain things, like the internet won't work on the island, as our clocks are all wrong. Any correspondence etc. from the mainland has to come via the bridgeway, the old fashioned way! It's a major headache for us as a society, one we have been trying to address for years without success."

"Fascinating! Can't you use fibre optic or something and run a cable from the mainland?"

"Won't work. The cable and signal would be in sync with the outside world, when it came through the barrier it would either be in sync with that world and not connect to the island or in sync with our time frame and not connect to the mainland."

"Crikey! You do have problems! Makes my little conundrum in Britain seem petty, I only have to convince a group of pureblood hypocrites that centaurs are a unique race and get them to accept them as equals. You have to overcome quantum physical laws."

"Don't worry yourself, we'll find a solution, the latest attempt looks as if it may be successful, we're planning on having our own satellite launched in the near future by NASA, with several atomic clocks and re-routing programs on it, the tests look promising so it may solve that problem; you on the other hand are a problem of a different sort!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, from what we have been given to understand you were born a muggle, were around accidental magic by your cousin and showed no signs of magic of your own. If you were a squib as they call it, then you would have stayed that way; however, I believe you were to interact with magic in your last year of schooling and indeed later perform magic. This should be impossible, no squib has suddenly developed magic before; therefore, you are unique!"

"But, but...why me?"

"As to why, well I personally have a hypothesis based on what I have learnt about your later interactions with magic. Magic is not just the simple waving of a wand to get something to happen, or the quirk of genetics I spoke of earlier. The ability to do magic of any kind is the ability to influence one of the fundamental aspects of the world through will. This field of energy of you like, somewhat similar in nature to say electromagnetism or gravity is interactive with wizards and to some extent; or so centaurs believe it is sapient. Magic has a controlling consciousness, which we call Hecate, the Goddess of Magic. I believe she wants you to be a force for change in the British Wizarding World?"

"Bloody hell! Nice way to break it me, 'Magic itself wants you to change the world. Makes me understand what Harry's told me about his life."

"What do you mean by that statement?"

"All his life he's been mistreated; by myself and my parents he was treated as a freak and an outsider, shown no love or affection of any kind. The magical world saw him as 'The-boy-who-lived; their personal property and saviour from the dark wizard who was threatening their world. Every move he made in that world was subject to intense scrutiny. He was a hero one minute and the next potential dark lord the next, he couldn't do anything without it being publicised and analysed by the press. If it ever got out in Britain that Magic itself wanted me to change the wizarding perception of the world, I'm sure my life would be just the same."

"I begin to see, I hadn't made the connection, your cousin Harry is actually Harry Potter, the wizard who finally managed to do away with that nutter, Voldemort, who was terrorising magical Britain; it seems there is more and your family than meets the eye. Let me think, your cousin is a half-blood, son of a muggle-born witch and a pure blood wizard, which means potentially you were never a squib at all, maybe you were a wizard all along but so potentially so magically weak that you couldn't attend Hogwarts; your increased magical potential could be a result of your interactions with the dementors and your year in hiding, so to speak."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your attack from the dementors was the first time you felt in real danger of your life, that is usually one of the causes of first use of magic, that or the intense desire for something you've been denied. Would you mind if I did a magical scan on you? It wouldn't harm you or anything, just satisfy my curiosity a bit!"

"Err! Ok!"

He proceeded to wave his hands over me for a few seconds, muttering under his breath in what I assumed was Greek. "well, Mr. Dursley, I can find no sign that you were born a wizard or a squib, 100% muggle, about 15 years ago you were first affected by magic, and then around 10 years ago, you developed a sensitivity to magic, possibly because of the dementor attack, although again that is practically unheard of. Then just over a year ago, maybe a bit longer, you suddenly became a fully fledged wizard, I don't know how, although there is a slight indication of blood magic involved."

"That would be Harry adopting me as his brother, he made a cut in both our palms and we agreed to be brothers formally, legally and ritually, I think," I looked at Gabrielle. "Is that right Gabby?" she nodded at me.

"And fifteen years ago? What happened then?"

"Let me think, fifteen years; I think the incident you could be referring to was when my cousin finally got his Hogwarts letter; the school sent a half-giant called Hagrid to hand deliver his letter and take him to Diagon Alley to pick up his school supplies. Hagrid hit me with a spell that caused me to grow a pig's tail; I still have the scar from the operation to remove it."

"I see, that one incident may be important, if you were attacked by magic and the resulting 'damage' treated by muggle medicine, then it is entirely possible that you were 'seeded' with magic. Inherited the ability to interact with it, so to speak. Removing the tail with magic would have let you a normal muggle, but having it removed surgically left you scarred with magic, indeed in a way, this Hagrid fellow could even be considered a wizarding guardian to you, in that he caused you to become a fledgling member of the magical community."

"Bloody hell! Err! Pardon my language, but do you mean I could use that fact to have Hagrid as a half-giant recognised as a full wizard and through him, all giants by association?"

"You'd probably need to get some of those ridiculous laws in your country changed, I don't know if you're aware of the fact but your lovely wife, being part veela is not seen as a full witch by your authorities, just some half-breed."

"I seem to remember being told something similar by her brother-in-law, a full blood wizard!"

"Indeed Mr. Dursley you really seem a remarkable individual and given your magical history, seem to be someone who will affect change within said society; I truly believe that you will be the person to end our long exile with most of the wizarding world. Excuse me for a moment!"With that last remark he seemed to fade from our vision for a moment, but at the same time he was still in full view, albeit 'slightly out of focus', just perceivable from the corner of your eye. I glanced at Gabrielle as he snapped back into focus and began to speak again in an oddly choral voice. "Mr. Dursley, it is the contention of the State Legislature of New Sparta, that you be appointed our representative to the British Wizengamot and ICW. At such time in the future as you are able to contact us and make formal requests for diplomatic relations to be opened, they will be honoured." Our host then shook himself and spoke in his normal voice, "Gods, but I hate it when that happens, congratulations Mr. Dursley you have made history today, our first ambassador to England in several hundred years. I would suggest that you look up your magical and muggle history texts to sort out some legal aspects of what you have become. In particular, in regards to your present monarch, this will be of assistance to you in the future."

I looked at Gabrielle, shocked awe on my face, "Err! I understand the honour just done me, but how do you mean about the Queen; how does she affect wizarding Britain?"

"As I said, look into everything pertaining to both societies, certain obligations to the monarch are inherent in what you will be doing in the foreseeable future. I am unable to say anything more on this, my understanding of your legal and legislature is limited at best; you need to find it out for yourself! Now that the formalities are sorted, how about I show you around our State and you can play tourist for a while?"

Gabby and I nodded at this and following our host we undertook to spend the rest of our visit seeing around oldest state of the New World as only tourists can...

AN I apologise to all my readers and _followers of this story_ for the long delay in the posting of this latest chapter. I do know where this story is going and have major points in the story plotted out, just sometimes it's hard to put finger to keyboard (pen to paper), that and problems with work and the health of a family member have delayed my working on this story; for this I offer my humble apologies. I will endeavour to be quicker with updates but I'm not making promises.

AN2 The title of this chapter is a slight homage to author Piers Anthony who amongst many other series has written several books about the magical land of Xanth; one of the volumes in his story is called 'Centaur Aisle', but he postulates a slightly different way that the centaur isle exists. If you enjoy a good laugh while reading magical fiction, I recommend them, as being full of humour, look out for 'copy-cats', 'cat-a-pults' and several other PUN based bits of humour.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 A Royal History of Magic

**Author Note: An apology to my loyal readers for the long delay in updating this story, dealing with final illness and death of my mother, and subsequent familial obligations, has meant that I have not had the time or HEART to write. It may take me a while to get my muse back, but I will update as I can and do not plan to abandon this story. Thank You for your understanding!**

It was our first day back home after our honeymoon in the United States and I was reading a book I had bought after our trip to New Sparta, 'A Magical History of Britain and Europe'. The differences that in what I had learned from the book in Tinworth, during the year that Harry was fighting Voldemort, and this book were astronomical in proportions. So many details were missed out from the British books, the fact that Hogwarts was built on land ceded to his allies, by Royal Decree of King William the 1st after he had conquered the Saxon king Harold at Hastings.

Richard, Duke Slytherin and his son, Sir Salazar; Sir Jean de Poiter, Lord Poiter; had come over from Normandy with William giving him magical aid in his conquest of the Saxons. He was joined by allies in Britain, Godric, called Gryffin 'dor, (griffin of gold), as he had managed to save an entire village by slaying a rampaging griffin that had been threatening it. An English lord by the name of Roderick of Ravenclaw and his daughter, Rowena; and a peasant girl by the name of Helga, from some obscure village called Hufflepuff's End. After the battle, Sir Salazar on surviving the battle had inherited the title from his father who had perished in the battle...

King William had knighted and Ennobled young Godric as Earl Gryffindor; the Lady Rowena Ravenclaw inherited her father's title and Helga was created Lady Helga Hufflepuff, these four worthies were instructed to create a school for the education and training of all magical subjects of the New Kingdom...

Sir Jean de Poiter became the Court Mage to the newly crowned King William and was charged with protection of the crown from any and all magical and mortal attack. A new castle was built by the King and his Court Mage put all manner of enchantments and wards on the castle to prevent magical attack on the premises. There was also a complex charm connecting the monarchy to the wards, so that should a magical royal occur, they would be shielded from the wards; the perpetuation of the wards was tied into the creatures of the area on which the castle was built, in reality a flock of ravens were the living embodiment of the charms on this castle...

I looked up from my reading, castles, wards and ravens; I seemed to remember something from when I was at school about that. There was some sort of muggle legend that if the ravens ever left the Tower of London, the Monarchy would fall; seems to me there might be some more to that legend than I had previously given credit to...

The relationship with the Royal Family continued until the Civil War when after the defeat of the Royalists by the Commonwealth, the Wizarding World had formed its own government of Heads of Families and Wizarding Lords calling it the Wizengamot; no attempt had been made to re-establish contact with the Monarchy after the Restoration, but technically the Crown was still the head of the Wizarding World, indeed the oath on taking a seat on the Wizengamot had pledged allegiance to the Crown until it was altered in 1837, when Queen Victoria had ascended the throne, and the Wizengamot had decided that enough was enough and they would no longer pledge allegiance to a muggle and a muggle woman at that...

The vaguely interesting thing that seemed to occur through this history was that occasionally, a member of the Royal Family would attend Hogwarts as a student; the last one that had been eligible had been a Prince John. Born in July 1905, he had never attended the school as some sort of muggle illness had precluded this and indeed he had died as a complication from this at the age of 13. Although I had no proof and indeed there probably was none, it did seem that the Royal Family was not all muggle, and could indeed be a cadet squib line of a magical house.

What really seemed interesting to me was that the Queen was still the head of the wizarding world, although the muggle world had evolved into a constitutional democracy, with the Queen as Head of State rather than an absolute Monarchy; that had never really happened with the Magical World. No treaties or documents had been signed to remove her as Ruler. I understood from Harry that on odd occasions the Minister for Magic would report something to the Muggle Prime Minister, as had indeed happened when his godfather, Sirius had escaped from Azkaban, as that had been reported on the TV news. Indeed Fudge had also notified the Prime Minister of the time, (John Major if anybody is interested), of the import of several dragons into the country for the Triwizard tournament. Now if the Wizengamot still felt that need to inform the Prime Minister of these facts, why did they not see the Queen as the ruler of the Magical World?

The book more or less ended about this point, as it was published in 1996, and was the latest edition that the American book store had when I had visited it, but it raised a few interesting points to me.

I knew that in a few months I would be required to take up a seat in the Wizengamot as a new wizarding lord, but it seemed as a British subject first and foremost, my loyalty was to the Queen, and technically could be accused of treason if I took oath with the Wizengamot which was in violation of the Accords of the Wizarding World which were part of the Magna Carta that had been signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215. This had stated that the Wizarding World had certain autonomies to rule itself, but the ultimate authority rested with the Crown.

Indeed if the Crown were aware of a breach of these Accords, it could rule it invalid and all sections of the Magical World that were hidden from muggles could be opened to the general populace, all charms and spell protections removed by Royal Decree.

I didn't believe that this should happen, although I was convinced from my visit to the US, that the Statute of Secrecy was wrong in some ways, I was not eager for it to be revoked completely by Royal Decree; the magical world could not survive if completely open to scrutiny by the muggle world. I needed to find out more facts about the way that the system worked and how my part in it as a new wizarding lord fitted the pattern. If I went to one of my colleagues at work though and asked, I am sure they would fits of apoplexy if they knew I was checking into the connection with the Muggle Monarchy, I'm pretty sure that some of the older more stuffy members of the magical world didn't even know who the present Monarch was, having 'severed' all connection when Queen Victoria ascended the throne.

I left the front door of my house and went next door and knocked on the 'hidden' door of number 12 where Harry and his family lived, I needed to discuss this with someone. Gabrielle understood the French Ministerial politics more than the English although she worked at the Ministry, and I hoped Harry could help.

The door was answered by Kreacher, Harry's aging house elf that he had inherited from his godfather with the house, and I was shocked at what I noticed. Kreacher had always looked a great age, but now he looked positively ancient and rather ill if the truth be known. I asked where Harry was and was directed to his study on the second floor, Kreacher said he would be up shortly with coffee for the two of us, as Master Harry had just asked for some for himself. I nodded thanks and made my way upstairs to the office.

One thing I noticed particularly for the first time was how much bigger than my house, Harry's was. On my second floor I had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, there were five or six doors off the landing on Harry's second floor, I'd never been off the ground floor in his house before, come to think of it that was considerably larger than mine too. Odd! They were supposed to be identical houses built next door to each other.

I knocked and entered to the invitation from Harry. "Oh hello, Dudley, I was wondering why Kreacher was knocking, what brings you here so soon after your honeymoon? Not looking for a divorce already is she?"

"Very funny!" I quipped, "I'm concerned that every British wizard may be breaking the law and risking the complete exposure of the magicals world to the general muggle population."

He laughed at this and then stopped when he saw the look on my face, "bloody hell! You're serious aren't you? What do you mean by that statement?" I handed him the book pointing out the passages I had marked for him to read through, a lot of the history was irrelevant to the point I was making, there just being a couple of chapters that dealt with the Royal Treaties and Decrees.

He read the marked sections as we both sat drinking the coffee that Kreacher had brought up, finally looking at me as he finished drinking. "I can see what you're saying! If Her Majesty decided that our world had broken Faith with the treaties, she could issue a proclamation negating the treaties and relevant sections of the Magna Carta and we would be open to scrutiny from muggles everywhere! What do you think we should do?"

"Personally I have no belief that the wizarding world should be completely open to the non-magical one, but there should be more co-operations between the two communities. Things can't stay the way they are forever." I opened the book to the back page and removed a photograph that I had obtained from the internet whilst in the States and handed it to Harry.

"What's this?"

"That; cousin is a satellite image of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley and its surrounding muggle streets taken from a satellite image on Google Earth. The images of that area we get in Europe are affected by the Statute of Secrecy, the magical areas are edited out by certain clauses in the act; I don't clearly understand how it works, but that Law has a lot to answer for. Without it, we could be using normal technology in the ministry, not our spelled version. Of course our spelled version is a lot cheaper, but imagine the look on the minister's face if he was told of the income that could be generated for through selling magical computers at muggle prices to muggles. The benefits of that would be gratefully received I'm sure."

"Bloody hell, Dudley. What else did you find out in the States?"

I chuckled and reached into my trouser pocket and pulled put a small book; the size of a diary and tapped it with my wand. It expanded to the size of a large paperback, the title read 'Practical Defensive Magic'; I handed it to Harry, "page 275!"

He quickly opened the book to the relevant page, "The Death Shield: 'The Avada-proof vest,' is this what I think it is, Dudley, a shield against the Unforgivable Avada curse?"

"It is, yes!" I replied with a grin, "in the States the spell is not unforgivable; it's legal to cast, in the same way it's legal to shoot someone with a gun, the right to bear arms. I've not actually read the book, but from what I was told it's quite a simple spell to use, second year Hogwarts at most!"

"You don't do things by half do you? In a short visit across the pond, you bring back spells that could seriously change the magical world and dig up a hornet's nest by saying I could be committing treason if I swear to the Wizengamot, what's next, Cuz, speaking with God and getting an answer on your telephone?"

"Sorry! Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!"

"What?"

"During our honeymoon, we visited the State of New Sparta; which is one of the US states hidden from the British because of the Statute of Secrecy. It's a centaur state, basically covering the area of the Bermuda Triangle. We visited the temple of Hecate, the Goddess of Magic; because of a few things that were brought up in our initial conversation with the ambassador we spoke with. I don't exactly remember all that happened in the temple, although I do remember asking for guidance in what my future held for the magical world. Well, suffice to say something happened; on our way from the temple we passed a bookstore and I felt compelled to go in; found myself at the checkouts with that book on history. I seem to be noticing more as well; I've been in your home on numerous occasions, but never noticed before that it's bigger than mine; but at the same time it can't be; they're identical town houses."

"Never thought about that last one; there may be enchantments and spells all over this house, it has been the Black family home for a couple of hundred years, who knows what they did to it. as for your thoughts on the issue of the Crown and the treason issue, it's never occurred to me and I have no idea at this time on how to solve it. We need other help on this and I have an idea on that!"

I looked at him and grinned, "Hermione!"

"Actually no!" I looked at him in stunned disbelief, "I was thinking of Kingsley, he has somewhat limited access to the Prime Minister and we might need that!"

I agreed with him on the point and we made our way to the parlour whilst we waited for a reply to the e-mail he had sent from the computer in his office.

As we made our way down the stairs I was thinking of the differences between our two houses and wondering what enchantments and spells had been used to make the house bigger; I felt a momentary dizziness and my vision altered causing me to stumble against Harry who was in front of me. "Hey! Be a bit more care...! Are you alright Dudley, you look a little sick...?

A/N I was intending this chapter to be longer, but this seemed a logical place to break off; I will continue to update as quickly as my muses allow me to. There are things planned in the future chapters that will set both worlds on their heads. I thank all my loyal readers and those people of _excellent taste in my opinion_ who have favourited either myself and this story and will do my best not to disappoint them.

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas 2012 and a better 2013 for us all?


	6. Of Sight and Vision

Chapter 6: Of Sight and Vision

I was led to the sofa by Harry who was looking concerned at me, after my brief spell of dizziness as we had come down the stair from his office. He quickly waved his wand over me and I presume found nothing out of the ordinary as I heard him call for Kreacher to bring a Pepper-up potion for me.

"Drink this, Dudley, it'll help! I can't find anything wrong with you except for a slight bit of exhaustion and some things a little odd with your vision, I think you should see an optician or a magical oculist if that continues."

I looked up at him and was surprised by what I was seeing; my cousin was perfectly normal there in front of me, but the silver outline that I could see around him was definitely not normal. Kreacher came in with the requested Pepper-up and I looked up to thank him and immediately closed my eyes again.

If the outline around Harry could be described as bright, Kreacher was blinding, and gold not silver, but that gold was streaked with black that seemed to pulse through it. "What is wrong with Master Dudley; is Kreacher needing to fetch healer for him?"

"I don't know Kreacher; are you alright, Dudley, if you need more help I can get a healer here at once."

"Don't know. I can see you perfectly normally and yet you're different, it's like you're outlined in silver. Kreacher is a blinding gold, with streaks of black!" I looked around at the room and there were shimmerings that I could perceive on almost every wall. "The walls are shimmering like a heat haze, but that's not exactly the right way to describe it either."

I heard a gasp from Kreacher, "Master Dudley, if I is asking you to do something for me, could you be doing it?" I nodded at this and Kreacher produced a black piece of cloth from somewhere. "Please Master Dudley; be putting this over your eyes and tying it tight."

"Kreacher, what are you...?"

"Master Harry sir, I knows what I is doing!"

I quickly tied the blindfold around my eyes and nodded in the direction of Kreacher, "ok! Now what?"

"Please look at Master Harry and myself, what does you see?"

"Just this blindfold, what should I be seeing?"

"Master Dudley, you is to please ignore the blindfold and look at Master Harry and myself, what do you see?

I tried to do what Kreacher was suggesting and gasped in shock, "I see a silver light that I know to be Harry, and a gold light that I know to be you Kreacher, I can't say how I know how it's you that I see, but you look like Kreacher as if I was seeing you differently; does that make sense?"

"Yes Master Dudley, it is making perfect sense," said Kreacher as he clicked his fingers and the blindfold vanished from my eyes. "Master Dudley is having the Mage Sight, it is extremely rare and precious gift, the last person to have the gift known to Kreacher was Phineas Nigellus Black, the infamous Hogwarts headmaster!"

"Kreacher, you mean the same Phineas Nigellus Black whose portrait is downstairs in the Black tapestry room, the same person whose picture Hermione and I carried around for nearly a year?"

"Yes Master Harry, that Phineas Nigellus Black, it was not for being a good teacher that he was appointed headmaster of Hogwarts, he was having the Mage Sight and could be seeing the enchantments and wards around the castle."

"Kreacher, please bring the portrait up from the tapestry room and put it so we can speak to him please." Kreacher bowed to Harry and vanished with a crack and returned with a picture frame showing just a chair and a curtained wall behind it and placed it on the wall where it stuck. "Professor Phineas Nigellus Black, I need to seek your advice, could you come to my aid, please?"

To my weird vision the picture seemed to shimmer for a moment and a distinguished though rather pompous looking gentleman walked into the frame and took a seat. "What can I do for you Harry? I wasn't expecting to have to speak to you until after you had a second son to make a formal request of you!"

"Sorry what? No, nothing like that, it's my cousin Dudley, Kreacher says he has Mage Sight and you were the last person he knows to have had it."

"I don't appreciate being the butt of a joke young Harry, the only relatives that you had were muggles and I refuse to believe you would think to try and pull such a stupid prank on me. I will be leaving and will return when you are in a more respectful frame of mind."

"Master Phineas, please Master Harry is telling the truth, his muggleborn cousin is Lord Dursley of the Wizarding Court of Charlemagne."

"Impossible, the last wizarding lord was Nicholas Flamel, made so some years before my birth, are you suggesting that a muggle could become a wizarding Lord, I really must protest, that really is beyond a joke. I will be leaving now and I will not be returning until the head of this house apologises to me for this ridiculously insulting prank!" He got up from his seat and prepared to leave."

"Please, Professor Black, if I may?" I took out my wand, and held it up for him to see. "I Dudley Vernon Dursley, muggleborn cousin of Harry James Potter do swear by my life and magic that I am a lord of the wizarding court of Charlemagne!" there was a bright flash from my wand as I made the oath, I then waved my wand, thinking of my patronus as I did so, the resulting silver short eared owl flew round the room and straight at the picture. The figure of Professor Black was knocked out of his seat as the patronus went into the portrait and knocked him and his chair over."

"Bloody hell young man!" he said picking himself up and straightening the chair and sitting himself back in it. "How did you do that, nothing can influence a wizarding portrait like that. I offer my most humble apologies and utmost respect to you. You are obviously a wizard, there must be some mistake about you being a muggleborn though, even though you are still alive after your oath and still have your magic. It must be that you truly believe you were muggleborn and believe that in your heart of hearts, that is the only explanation for your not dropping dead of swearing a fake oath!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you there, Professor Black, but up until the year that my cousin went on his quest to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes I was a complete muggle, it is only through several twists of fate that I am able to perform magic."

"Pardon, my boy!"

"Huh! What are you talking about Dudley?"

"If I may tell you some things I have learned; please try not to interrupt as I don't fully understand it all myself." There were nods from the seated figure in the portrait and Harry. "When Harry received his Hogwarts letter on his eleventh birthday I was cursed by the teacher who came to collect him." there was a gasp from the portrait and I gave it a stern look and again he nodded for me to continue. "I was given a pig's tail and I'm not sorry to say I probably deserved it; hell I definitely did. I was a fat overweight pig who had started to stuff the birthday cake that Hagrid had brought into my face as soon as I could get my hands on it. This tail was later removed by a muggle surgeon. I am reliably informed by someone that this incident 'infected' me with magic so to speak, this magic was mostly inert until the year that we went into hiding. Exposure to magic in the town of Tinworth coupled with the wand / ID card that I was given by the people who were responsible for hiding us, somehow had the effect of bringing that magic to the surface, much like a wizard child's first use of accidental magic. Later, Harry adopted me as his brother, through blood and magic, this produced a major power boost to the weak magical core that I possessed and here I am today."

"Fascinating young man, a remarkable tale and it bears a good chance of being right, how did you learn of all this?"

"That would have been in the island state of New Sparta in the United States of America."

"You mean that there is actually a proper wizarding community in that colonial backwater, well will wonders never cease?"

"Oh! There is definitely more than a proper wizarding community, there are complete states in the union that are almost exclusively magical, their muggle shops sell magical books in special sections protected in similar ways to Diagon Alley. They have some quite impressive Schools of Magic as well, that could possibly give Hogwarts a run for its money." This was a slight stretching of the truth, in my opinion from what I had seen, they were far and above Hogwarts standards, but this Phineas Nigellus fellow seemed a bit of a snob. I rubbed at my eyes, this mage sight thing, whatever it was, was giving me a bloody headache.

"I apologise my young lord, while it is fascinating to discover that the colonials are making good for themselves, it is obvious that you are new to your mage sight and it is causing you some distress, how may I help? How new exactly is this to you?"

"Very, this is the first time I have ever heard of mage sight and the first time I think I have ever experienced it. I was thinking about the differences between my house and Harry's when my vision altered and I stumbled against him whilst coming down the stairs to this lounge."

"I see, very new then, I will do my humble best to help! Place a hand over your eyes and picture your newfound mage sight falling back behind your eyes and your vision returning to normal. You may find this a little tricky at first!"

I followed the instructions given and definitely felt something, a curious itch in my eyes, I removed my hand and glanced around, everything was back to normal, no halos around anything. It felt a lot better and the headache that had been forming was receding as well. "My thanks, Professor Black; that has helped a great deal. But could you enlighten me, as to exactly what mage sight is and do you have any ideas how I may have suddenly been given it or possess it so to speak?"

"My dear boy you ask much and there is much that is not known about mage sight. It occurs only rarely and usually manifests in someone for no known reason. If what I believe to be true is correct then the mage sight is given to an individual as a gift from someone; who this someone is I am unable to say. The mage sight is the ability to see magic. The field of energy that powers our spells and indeed the spells manipulation on the normal world. Of course this is my own observation from my own experience, there was no one I could speak to when I was alive."

"That makes sense, I can understand that magic is a field of energy that is analogous to electromagnetism and radiation, after all it can affect muggle technology, but how did I acquire it so to speak?"

"I'm glad you understood what I said, because I'm afraid to say, young man, that I understood not a word of what you said. What is this eklecomagnets and radiation, and techology? Sounds like you're speaking a different language!"

"I'll try to explain in ways to make it easier professor, electromagnetism is the power of the lightning and magnets which all work together. Muggles have learned ways to tame the lightning and make it able to light their homes and cities, harness this energy to make heat and even communicate over large distances much the way wizards use the floo..."

"I find that hard to believe young man, oh that the lightning is this electromagics sounds logical, but that muggles could make their own floo network, I find hard to credit."

"Very well professor, I think a practical demonstration is in order," I pulled my mobile phone from my pocket and showed it to the portrait. "This is essentially a fireless floo connection I cannot travel by it, but I can make a call to someone and ask them to come over, shall I do that for you?"

"Yes please, this I must see, it sounds intriguing!"

I dialled a number on the phone and put it onto loudspeaker so we could all hear. The phone on the other end rang a couple of times and Gabby's voice came over loud and clear, "hello Dudley, is there a problem I thought you were only going to be a little while at Harry's; it's been over an hour?"

"Things have got a little complicated, could you take the floo to Harry's and bring your mobile with you, keeping this call active at the same time!"

"Ok, Dudley, you've got me curious, I'm coming across!" the fire in the grate flared green and she stepped through into the lounge where Harry and I were talking with the portrait. "What's all this about?"

"Please Gabby, bear with me, this is going to seem daft, but can you put your phone on loudspeaker and stand a bit closer to the portrait," she did so, "so what do you think professor?" my voice could be heard quite naturally in the room, but also through Gabrielle's phone near the picture. I shut my phone off and gestured her to do the same.

"Quite impressive, but it could still be a slight hoax on your part, how did the young lady know it was you calling her; no offence my dear but I must make sure I'm not being had here, you understand?"

"I understand professor; Gabby could you hold your phone so the professor can see the screen/ you needn't answer the call." She did so and I dialled her phone and she let it ring. "Now, professor, you see the screen it is showing my name?" he nodded at this and I ended the call and looked to Harry, "could you dial Gabby's mobile the same please?" Harry pulled out his own mobile and dialled the phone and now the display showed Harry's name. Whilst it was ringing, Harry left the room and went to the hallway; the phone stopped ringing for a second and then began again with a different ringtone.

"Marvellous, it now say's 'the Potter's', this is brilliant how does it know who's calling?"

"Every one of these phones has its own unique number, much like each fireplace on the floo network has its own name, when I or anyone else dial Gabby's phone this number is sent ahead so she knows who's calling, so can decide whether to answer it or not."

"Extremely clever, but shouldn't be necessary, after all there must only be so many people who have one of these portable floo thingies. I mean you shouldn't need that many numbers."

"Professor, this is a muggle device and there are approximately 6 billion muggles on this planet, theoretically every muggle on the planet could phone this phone from anywhere in the world. If someone I didn't know rang me, I would get their number, but no name, but the idea works the same."

"I see your point, but what has that to do with wizards, I mean most muggles wouldn't want to speak to a wizard would they?"

I pondered for a moment, looked at the time on my watch dialled a number on my phone, again switching to loudspeaker, "Caller, you have reached the Ministry of Magic, all our offices are now closed, however if it an emergency please listen to the following options for further assistance; if you require the Aurors, please press one on your phone; the Obliviators, please press two;..." I hung up the call; after all it was only to prove a point.

"I concede that this technolowhatsit stuff has even affected the ministry, but why should any witch or wizard need to use it; after all they have magic on their side and could use the normal floo connection?"

"Good point professor, but just imagine for a moment you are out for the evening and are mugged by some anonymous muggle, before you realise it, he has broken your wand and you need to call St. Mungo's for help, this phone requires no wand, you could even use another muggles phone to call the hospital for assistance if you knew the number, and all without a wand or floo connected fire."

"You make a very convincing case young man and I think I understand what you are trying to say, this electromaginics is quite interesting, and as I understand it can affect the world in a similar way to magic. It's a field of energy that most people cannot see, but muggles have learnt how to use like wizards have learnt to manipulate the magical field to power their spells." I nodded at this and the professor sat in thought for a moment. "If these mobile phone thingies are so numerous, how come we do not see lightning flashing everywhere as people make these calls, can you explain that?"

"I think so, professor, if you imagine that lightning is like an unforgivable, a very high powered spell that can't be blocked, the amount of energy used in making a phone call is about the same amount of energy that it takes to light a candle with your wand, there is no other way to put it."

"Quite alright my boy, I understand, I understand your meaning, it's like the difference between a hurricane and a sigh!" he sighed and grinned at us. "Both in their way are the movement of air, but on such a vast difference of scale, correct?" I nodded to him and his face brightened with understanding. "Very well young man to go back to our original discourse and mage sight, you are with your mage sight able to see the energy behind the spell, and indeed the lasting effects of any cast spell, like the many enchantments laid about this house to make it bigger and stronger than its muggle counterparts on either side. That is the distortions in the air that you saw as you looked around you, they are all visible, to you, manifestations of the cast spell and the energy used to do so; you don't for the most part see the everyday things like a candle being lit, because as you say, it's like a sigh, no visible after effects. The spells on the house however are like a strong wind that can knock trees down and are visible to you as they affect the world around you."

I nodded this was making sense. "How did it suddenly switch on, so to speak and how did I turn it off, and of more importance how did I get it?"

"Such interesting questions you pose young man. I must ask you young Harry where you have been hiding this fellow, he really does make a portrait's day? I believe from what you have said that as you were coming down the stairs you were wondering why this house is bigger than yours and your mage sight switched on, so to speak, to allow you to see how. Much in the same way that your eyesight would adjust from looking at my portrait to reading someone's name off of your phone. It's a natural reaction. The first time, it happened to you was slightly disorientating and you needed a friendly word to 'focus' your eyesight back to normal. With practice you should be able to see magical fields in much the same way as you see the portrait on the wall or the phone in your hand. It will come naturally with time."

"I understand, but why was Harry silver and Kreacher gold, with streaks of black?"

"What? Kreacher is what the young man said true? Are you dying?"

Kreacher who had been standing quietly listening quietly the whole time listening to our conversation, nodded to the portrait. "Yes Master Phineas, Kreacher is dying, but does not want to be forgotten, like some old pan. Master Harry removed all the old elf heads from the walls and buried them in the garden. Kreacher wants to be honoured as having given good service as an elf should." He bowed his head and looked at his feet in an embarrassed way.

"Why would you do that Master Harry? You do understand what an honour it was for a house elf to have his head mounted on the wall in this house?"

"Yes and no, Phineas. I understand that Kreacher saw it as an honour, but no disrespect to yourself and Kreacher I saw it as degrading, treating those honourable house elves as no more than a hippogriff or sphinx that you might hunt for sport and display its head as a trophy on the wall." He knelt by Kreacher. "Kreacher you say I buried the heads in the garden have you ever been up the garden to look where I buried them?"

Kreacher looked up at Harry, "no Master Harry Sir, I has not. I is not wanting to see where Master Harry disposed of honourable elves." Again he looked at his feet, this time with a slightly fearful look on his face as if he had said something wrong and would be punished for it.

"I think I understand Kreacher, you will follow me to the garden now," he glanced to me. "Dudley please bring the professor's portrait with you, he needs to see this too. I nodded, took hold of the portrait and followed Harry who was holding Kreacher's hand into the garden. Kreacher went with Harry a little reluctantly it must be said, but he did what his Master ordered. We arrived at the top of the garden and I noticed a small headstone set in the lawn in front of the fence.

_Here lie_

_Toady, Lackey, Ugly & Bucket,_

_Faithful elves who served with Honour_

_And are Honoured as_

_Elves of The Noble House of Black._

"They are not dumped Kreacher, they are buried with honour in a plot that I especially set aside for them, when you leave us, I would bury you here alongside them, the last of the elves to serve the Blacks and first to serve me as Lord Potter. It is no dishonour, I believe it is more of an honour to be buried as an elf, a proper burial, rather than be mounted on the wall as a trophy, an animal." Kreacher fell to his knees at the graveside and began to cry.

"There you see, young Harry, you have upset him now," said the portrait of Phineas.

Between his sobs, Kreacher spoke. "No Master Phineas; Master Harry is truly a great wizard, he is treating house elf as real person, I is seeing that now. House elf is buried with proper headstone like Dobby, and Mistress and Master Black before him. Master Harry is saying that house elf has honour of their own and are remembered as family, meaning lots more to Kreacher than mounting his head on wall."

"My word, young Harry, I apologise to you, you seem to have impressed Kreacher here, but I still must ask him a question. What are you going to do about a new elf to serve the noble house of Black / Potter?"

Kreacher sat up on his knees and rubbed the tears from his eyes, "I not know if I father any kits, but maybe; when Kreacher was at Hogwarts with Master Harry, fighting Lord Moldyshorts, he was friendly with house elf working there called Winky, maybe she can help?" He glanced at me and Gabrielle, his eyes closing for a moment and drawing a breath, maybe find house elf to help Master Dudley and Mistress Gabrielle too. They is needing help soon to help with little one of their own.

"There was a gasp from Harry who looked at Gabby and I, "is this true, are you pregnant Gabrielle? Am I going to get a nephew or niece soon? You are a sly pair; I thought you waited till you were married."

Gabrielle blushed bright red, "not that is any concern of yours. Harry Potter, but we did wait until after we married, I conceived on our honeymoon, on the 5th night or 6th morning, whatever, and you will soon have a niece, Veela always produce female offspring when mating with wizards."

"Ah! Master Dudley, then I am afraid your line will die with you, without a son to carry on your family name, such a pity, so few wizarding noble families survive to become Ancient and Noble Houses, a family needs to be Noble for at least 20 generations for that to be happen, the Blacks were a Noble house for 50 generations, before they came to an end, but there is hope if my adopted heir; your cousin can manage a second son, I hope he will allow that son to become a Black rather than a Potter and continue the honourable House of Black!"

It was Harry's turn to blush slightly now, I will speak to Ginny about it, if she is willing we may do it if we have a second son, but at the moment we have no plans for a second child. When it happens, it happens."

We all began to make our way back to the house, me still carrying the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black and Kreacher looking slightly happier over the future. He looked up at Harry, "Master Harry; should Kreacher see about getting new elves for yourself and Master Dudley's family?" Harry gave me a glance and I looked at Gabrielle who nodded at me, I in turn nodded to Harry.

"Yes please Kreacher, and if Winky is not carrying a kit of yours, please see if another elf is willing to conceive a child with you, I would be honoured if a son or daughter of Kreacher would be the house elf for the House of Potter!"

Kreacher looked even prouder now and with a bow, disappeared with a loud crack as we passed into the house. I placed the portrait over the fire place and Harry paused to make three cups of coffee and bring them with him into the lounge. He handed a cup each to myself and Gabrielle and sat himself in an armchair, Gabby and I sat next to each other on the sofa. "Sorry, if Kreacher embarrassed the both of you with his announcement, and if I caused any embarrassment myself with my comment about waiting till you were married, it was only meant in jest!"

Gabrielle took hold of my hand, "we understand Harry, we were planning on telling you eventually; not even my family know yet; you're the first apart from the paramedics who Dudley called on when I wouldn't wake up that morning!"

Harry looked at me and raised his eyebrows in question, and blushing furiously I told him the tale of that morning on our honeymoon when I couldn't wake her and phoned the emergency services in a panic.

He sniggered and put his hand in front of his mouth, "sorry Dudley I shouldn't laugh it must have been terrible embarrassing for you having those questions asked and having to be so forthright about such things and having them know what you had been up to; but you have to see the funny side of it too?"

"I can, and do, but if I ever hear that you repeat that particular episode to anyone else you might see a return of 'Big D' and 'Harry Hunting' so no spreading the story around at work." I winked at Gabrielle as I said this and she tried to look intimidating to Harry as well. I doubt either of us thought Harry would actually spread the story round, but we needed to put an end to that particular strand of the conversation.

Gabrielle looked thoughtful for a moment, "I have noticed that Ginny is not around with young James, where is she, nothing is wrong I hope?"

"Nothing too bad, no, she's at her parent's, George finally proposed to Angelina last night, and Molly is already planning the wedding, she's waited long enough for this. At one point after the war, we all thought that George would never come out of his shell. I must say that him proposing to Angelina was a bit of a shock. I knew she worked for him at the shop, helping him with the accounts and general record keeping; she was Fred's girlfriend when they were at Hogwarts or that's how I remember it. She went to the Yule Ball in my fourth year with him anyway."

"I remember Molly from that New Year that I spent at the Burrow, she'll smother the poor couple, suggest to George that he take the option his brother gave out at Bill's wedding or so you told me. Tie Molly up until everything is over and let the guests turn up as they like."

"I don't think that'll be an option for George, he thrives on the attention of his family; it seems to make it less painful for him and brings Fred closer to him. I think sometimes that he still thinks Fred is alive. He's not crazy, or confused in any way, just seems to speak of having Fred helping him, when he shows me some new product for the shop. As I understand it, Fred was more of the ideas man, and George was the get up and go fellow who would put these ideas into practice. Quite the genius with potions is George, surprising anybody in Gryffindor passed their potion's N.E.W.T.'s with Snape teaching. He hated everything to do with the house of the lions, when he was alive. Strange when I met him that time you installed the phones at Hogwarts, he was a changed man. Seemed almost pleased to see me, in an odd sort of way; well at least he was smiling when he saw me that day. Bit unnerving actually."

We sat in the lounge as I contemplated this 'mage sight' I had been gifted with, maybe it could be useful, I wondered why I was given this gift; when suddenly there was a flare from the fireplace and Kingsley's head appeared there, "what were you needing to speak to me that was so urgent and couldn't wait until the morning...?"

AN. This seemed the logical stopping point for this chapter, which seemed to almost want to be written. I'll get the next chapter out as soon as I finish typing it up, but don't expect it this fast, unless I get divine help like Dudley. Many thanks to the reviewers who have offered their condolences and good wishes, I wasn't expecting that from relative strangers, who know me through this little story.

I read the name Moldyshorts in the story "Throwing Away A Hero" by gredandforgerock and couldn't resist having Kreacher use it to show how his attitude had changed after the truth about Master Regulus was known to him. If you haven't read this story, I recommend it, it tells of Harry's defeat of Voldemort at the end of OOTP and the action that happens when Dumbledore tells the Dursleys that he is now surplus to requirements and they should make sure he doesn't return to Hogwarts for the next year; it's quite funny in places.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 First Lord of the Treasury

_We sat in the lounge as I contemplated this 'mage sight' I had been gifted with, maybe it could be useful, I wondered why I was given this gift; when suddenly there was a flare from the fireplace and Kingsley's head appeared there, "what were you needing to speak to me that was so urgent and couldn't wait until the morning...?"_

He glanced around the room and noticed Gabrielle and myself seated together on the sofa, "ah! I begin to see some sense of who caused the problem. Mr. Dursley, are you the reason for this urgent summons; again I'm beginning to believe I should have had you obliviated of all knowledge of magic when you first turned up for that job interview. Might I ask, what problem have you stirred up today?"

Grinning, Harry handed him the literature that I had brought over a few hours earlier and pointed out the relevant passages. Kingsley raised his eyebrows at the titles of the books and began reading as he accepted a cup of tea that Harry handed him.

Half an hour later, he looked up from his reading, "very well I can see that you have some concerns about the Statute of Secrecy, and the fact that this Magna Carta thing, may have been breached, but, really I don't see the problem; we've been hidden for so long now, coming out to the authorities could breach the Statute!"

I sighed; once again I needed to show wizards how ignorant they were of the modern world and the advances that muggles had made. I handed him the photograph taken from Google Earth that I had showed Harry earlier. He looked at it and twisted it in his hands trying to see what the significance of the photo was. "that minister is a photo of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley and the surrounding muggle streets, it was taken by a surveillance satellite in orbit around the Earth, the Statute is not active in the US, so their satellites and computers are not affected either. I never thought to look, but going through the correct web sites etc I am sure I could find a photograph of Hogwarts as well. These sites were granted to the wizarding world by the monarchy and we are allowed to retain our secrecy from muggles, only as long as we do not allow our affairs to endanger the monarchy and any her subjects." Kingsley nodded at me, and motioned for me to continue. "I can think of a couple of instances where the wizarding world endangered the muggle one and covered it up, but there is the possibility that some enterprising muggle scientist or investigator could uncover the truth. If Her Majesty decided that these incidents were enough, it could mean war against the wizarding world."

Kingsley looked up in alarm. "Surely, you're exaggerating, what incidents are you talking about? It hasn't gotten that bad surely? Has it?"

"There's the incident of a bridge which the Death Eaters destroyed during the war, the muggle village destroyed by giants during the same period, and if you look further back there's an incident where an innocent man was framed and imprisoned for blowing up several muggles in a gas main explosion, where if you had any idea of the infrastructure of the area, would point out to you that the area in question has no piped gas, all the houses in the area at the time relied on oil fired boilers for their heating."

The minister looked at me and Harry for a few moments, deep in thought, "ok, Dudley, I understand the points you are making, but how may I ask are you aware of the incident involving the arrest of Sirius Black, after all you must have been all of two at the time?"

"Well, the main reason for knowing about this is muggle gossip, you may be aware of my family, and that I have an aunt, my father's sister?" I glanced at the minister who nodded. "Well, it was quite a topic of conversation for her over the years after, how a non-existent gas main in the new estate she had moved to, could explode causing such destruction. I heard my father mention something about sewers and gas build up, and I'm sure he hasn't exactly made the real connection, but the possibility is there that he could and if my father who is not the cleverest individual could possibly make the connection; couldn't others?"

"Very well, Mr. Dursley, I accept that you have made a connection there about an explosion in a non-existent gas main, but how have you connected that with Sirius Black? As far as I am aware there has never been that much detail in the muggle press about him, just that he was an armed mass murderer who had escaped from prison."

I looked a little sheepishly at Harry, "well, truth to tell minister, I learned about it from Harry, although he never told me."

"Pardon!" was the reply I got from all three of the people listening in on this conversation. Harry had a thoughtful expression on his face, wondering when he had ever told me anything so specific about his godfather."

"Harry never actually spoke to me about Sirius being innocent, but I remember his nightmares; they didn't make much sense at the time. I've managed to connect the dots so to speak since then. He used to say that it was his fault that Sirius had died; he blamed himself for the death of a boy named Cedric; he hated the fact that his friends had been hurt following him into the ministry. not all this was at the same time of course, it took place over many nights over a couple of summers, but that last summer, that Harry was living with us, I desperately wanted to know more about his school life and other parts of the life of my cousin; I didn't have the courage to say sorry to him, so I would borrow the copies of the Daily Prophet from his trunk; I don't know how I was able to read them as I later learnt there was a charm on the paper so as to make muggles think it was a foreign paper, but thinking about it now, perhaps the charm wears off after a while. Anyway, I managed to piece a lot together, of course I probably never got the whole story, but enough to make sense of what he was saying in his nightmares, and of a certain gas explosion... particularly as the ministry or the order used the same excuse to our neighbours when the house was partially destroyed by death eaters whilst we were in hiding."

"Hmm! A most astute piece of detective work, Dudley, I can see that the wizarding world needs to be more aware of our muggle neighbours at least in finding excuses for accidents caused by magic and this photograph you have show me, does point out that our secrecy is in the verge of discovery, whilst I do not think that the Statute should be scrapped completely, I do see the need for our two communities to have a better relationship in the future. You have certainly enhanced the way that the wizarding world perceives muggles in general, the computer is one way; we have managed to cut down on the size of the records department at the ministry quite a lot since your first introduction of it a while back. It used to be that every department head that a particular piece of legislation affected had to have their own copy of some document, now it is sent to them by e-mail, we only have one copy on file of everything on parchment, clearing up an area equal to two quidditch pitches I believe. This problem you have just presented me with however; might not have a quick or easy solution; I am curious as to why you thought that I might be able to help you with it?"

Harry looked at Kingsley; "I know that as Minister for Magic you have a limited contact with Mr. Blair, the Muggle Prime Minister, I was wondering if there was any way to use this connection to try and open negotiations for a formal reconciliation with the Monarchy?"

"Good grief Potter, it's not just your cousin that delights in causing me problems; I think I ought to get a large time turner and go back to just after you defeated Voldemort and tell myself not to offer you honorary N.E.W.T.s, and a post in the Aurors, but exile you from the country;" he sighed and then looked rather sternly at Harry. On seeing the look on Harry and my faces, he actually let out a snigger. "Oh, the look on both your faces is priceless, you know of course that that's impossible and also illegal, but I must admit that you both delight in giving me migraines with the puzzles you bring to my attention. The Unspeakables are still trying to replicate the effect that that mobile phone you charmed had in order to protect our Aurors from the killing curse and now you come up with yet another problem. I have very little to do with Mr. Blair, I had more to do with his predecessor, Mr. Major, being his bodyguard so to speak, I don't think I've spoken to Mr. Blair half a dozen times in all the time I've been minister and I have no idea how he reacts to my visits. I sort of inherited the protocol of informing him of major incidents in our world that may affect the muggles, but I honestly don't know how he reports those incidents to his cabinet or the muggle press; as must have happened in the case of Sirius Black a few years ago."

Harry handed Kingsley the book on 'Practical Defensive Magic' that I had given him earlier, "page 275!"

Kingsley raised his eyebrows and opened the book to the page indicated and the instructions for the 'The Avada-proof vest'. "Only you Dudley Dursley could negate two years of research at the Department of Mysteries with a book bought in a bookstore. Well I suppose in one way that gives us some leeway, I can have the Unspeakables look into how to reconnect with the muggle world and the Queen, and present this spell as a way of having them stop their current line of research. Have you any idea of what you are going to do next, just so I have an idea, about whether to resign ahead of time?"

"Not the future, but the past maybe, I've encountered one of the things I foresaw in my N.E.W.T Divination exam, I have talked to a centaur, whilst walking on water..."

"oh, really, you must be having me on, there is one person in history known to have walked on water and there is speculation in the magical world as to whether that is a metaphor of some kind, the man in question was not known to have been a wizard, of course it was before the importance of wizarding bloodlines was established so he may have been; but I really must say that that was the most ridiculous thing you said in your exams."

There was a loud crack at this point and our conversation was halted by the arrival of Kreacher back from his trip to Hogwarts to speak to Winky about his replacement, "Master Harry," he croaked, looking a little unsteady on his feet.

Harry looked very worried, "Kreacher, what's the matter? Are you alright? Please sit down and tell me the news of your visit."

Kreacher looked at him in disdain, "a proper house elf does not sit down in the presence of his master, it would not be right," he said, drawing himself up and trying to stand upright.

"A proper house elf does what he is told by his master," said Harry, waving his wand and producing a comfortable looking seat for Kreacher. "Now, please, take a seat and tell me what you learnt at Hogwarts."

Kreacher bowed his head and sat on the seat, trying to make it look like he was doing so under protest at his master's order, but we could all see his relief as he did so. "I has spoken to Winky and she tells me that she is pregnant with one kit, from Dobby, but will not give birth to it, unless she is a proper honest elf bound to a family and not disgraced by being paid; I is also told by the head elf at Hogwarts that I am too ill to father a kit of my own, I does not have the magic to spare, the effort to father a kit would kill me and more than likely be unsuccessful in a pregnancy." He looked disappointed at this and I suppose in a way he was, the thought that his potential child would continue to serve the Noble House of Black had quite inspired him.

Harry looked at Kreacher, "are there any of your descendants alive anywhere, any kits that are descended from you?"

"No, Master Harry, the last kit I fathered died over a hundred years ago, rescuing a Malfoy heir in a fire, I has no other family, I was the only child of my mother, and I know nothing of the family of the elf who fathered me."

Kingsley gave a cough, "I'll leave you to this family discussion, and set the ball rolling tomorrow with the Unspeakables with this solution to the avada you've given me and the new problem you've set."

Harry nodded, "thanks Kingsley..." Kingsley promptly stepped into the fireplace and flooed off to a destination that I didn't hear the name of.

Harry was looking thoughtful, obviously trying to think of some solution to this little conundrum that he had set himself. From what I knew of house elves, there needed to be no familial connection between the elves that served a family through the generations, though there usually was. His thought processes were halted by the sound of the phone in the hallway ringing; he excused himself and went to answer the call. Kreacher sat on the chair that Harry had produced for him, he looked better than he did when he had arrived back, but it was obvious that he was still a little down to think that his family line would die with him. I decided to try and help his thought processes along and try to prompt him into thinking of any other family he might have. "Kreacher, your kit that died in the Malfoy fire, do you know if it had any kits of its own, does the possibility of one of them being able to serve Harry's family exist?"

"Kreacher does not know, he has had no contact with the Malfoy family for many years since before Master Orion died, the father of Masters Sirius and Regulus; I is not sure I could go to the Manor now, I is not known to Master Draco, who is current Lord Malfoy."

At this point Harry returned from the hallway with a pleased expression in his face. "Kreacher, that was Ginny, she has agreed that we will take on Winky as a house elf for our house and Dobby's child as well, now that James is getting a little older and running about a bit more, she thinks she could do with the help in looking after him; Winky can be properly bonded to our house if that is her wish, but there will be conditions to her employment, similar to the ones you are now working with; she must dress appropriately as an elf, to show the honour and status of serving our house, she must accept a small payment which will allow her to purchase the materials to make her own clothing; this does not mean she is being paid..." Harry looked at me over Kreacher's head, as he was saying this and I could see what he was doing and winked at him. Technically he was paying Winky to be his elf, but at the same time, this money was not to be seen as wage by her, but an allowance to dress herself as a Potter elf.

Kreacher looked up at Harry and drew himself upright, "I will go to Hogwarts and inform Winky of Master Harry's offer," he bowed to Harry and made ready to disappear.

"Kreacher stop! You are not to go anywhere tonight; you have the rest of the evening off to recover from the trip you made earlier. You can go tomorrow to Hogwarts, but only if you are healthy enough! What's more, if Winky accepts the offer you are to take it easy, I do not want you dying on me from wearing yourself out with work."

"But, Master Harry, I..." said Kreacher in protest trying to find a way around this order. I looked at Harry and beckoned him over and whispered in his ear, he grinned at took his seat in front of Kreacher again.

Kreacher, I am not forcing retirement or anything like that, this is a promotion, you will be Head elf, this means it will be your responsibility to make sure Winky and her child are worthy of serving the Ancient and Noble House of Potter

"Yes Master Harry," replied Kreacher, although he still looked tired and ill, it seemed there was a sense of pride to him now, as he made his way out of the room to rest until tomorrow.

Harry was sitting looking thoughtful on the sofa; "this still means that we need to find an elf for yourself and Gabby, I know that Ginny is quite taken with the idea of having two elves and will appreciate all the extra help with James, not to mention when Teddy comes around, between them they can be a pair; I pity poor Hogwarts when they go, a future set of Marauders if I ever met them; thankfully they'll be in different years."

"What about writing to this Draco Malfoy and making enquiries of him, is that not possible?"

"Draco and I were not the best of friends at school; he was in Slytherin and I was the Gryffindor golden boy so to speak. On top of that his father was a Death Eater and died not long after the war, killed by one of his former colleagues who was trying to take over the Death Eaters with himself as head. We tentatively made our peace at the end of the war, but I've not really spoken to him that much. I don't know how he'd respond to such an odd request; most purebloods see their house elves as unworthy of their notice unless they need them for something, and let's not forget that Dobby was a Malfoy elf before I freed him, I don't know how Draco would regard that fact if he even knows about it!"

I had no idea how to respond to this revelation; it certainly was a bit of a poser. Our thoughts were all brought to a conclusion by a loud rumbling from Harry's stomach which Gabrielle took as an opportunity to invite him over to ours for a meal, which put an end to our brooding on this subject.

The next morning was mine and Gabby's first back at work since our honeymoon and as usual, after any break in my work schedule I found a mountain of paperwork waiting for me, what was it about holidays that seemed to inspire my department to generate a mountain of paper for me to plough my way through? By the lunchtime I felt as if I needed another holiday to get over all the reports etc, I had waded my way through, but then again I always did at this point after a break. Gabrielle and I were sitting together in the canteen at the ministry enjoying a quiet lunch together when she broached the subject of Draco Malfoy and a possible way to open communication with him

I drafted a letter on official ministry headed parchment and addressed it to Draco: Lord Malfoy and put in my out tray to be sent at the end of the day by ministry owl, I didn't want him to know that I was enquiring on behalf of Harry; from what I'd heard through ministry gossip that probably wasn't a good idea where this Draco Malfoy character was concerned. His family had been on the wrong side during the war with Voldemort and indeed his father had been removed as head of house and Lord Malfoy after the conflict. Pureblood politics, what a nightmare, almost made me glad I wasn't a pureblood, though being muggleborn had its share of problems too.

At the end of a very tiring day I made my way home with Gabrielle and told her of the letter I'd sent off, and the response I hoped for. She agreed that a letter from the Ministry from a Wizarding Lord was probably the best way to deal with a pureblood snob like Malfoy; she'd never met him herself but she knew the type; indeed some of the ministry snobbish types were rude to her at first upon learning of her 'veela' ancestry, bigots, the lot of them.

It was a couple of days later when I finally received a reply from Malfoy:

Lord Dursley,

I must admit, receiving a letter from the Ministry with such an unusual request came as bit of a shock, why anyone would worry about the familial status of a mere house elf is beyond me; but on reading your letter, I did make enquiries of our house elves. One elf, Stinker by name, admits to being the daughter of the house elf in question and that she is indeed carrying a kit, but refuses to give birth to it; it being the kit of an elf that was disgraced by being freed by my father, one Dobby by name. This is quite a surprise to me, as I was told by my father that Dobby was dead after my second year at school, a pity as he had been the elf who had been mine up to that point and I quite liked him, but hated the fact that my father was abusive to him whilst I was away at Hogwarts; the punishments he was ordered to give himself were horrific.

I must also admit to some surprise to hear of yourself, Lord Dursley, I pride myself on being a bit of an expert on the wizarding families of England and the continent, and do not recall hearing of your family. I must assume that the family is from the more Eastern European nations as most of those families do not associate much with the European Nobility, although the name does not sound that way, I can only assume you must have Anglicised it slightly on taking your position at the English Ministry of Magic, indeed I have never heard of a Minister of Social Services before so it must have been a department made especially for you, a new department with no real responsibility to go with it; sorry if that offends you, but I know that is usually the way our ministry works; 'mudbloods' and 'half bloods' and 'foreigners' given important sounding, but often pointless jobs. I'm sorry if the use of the above terms offends you; although at one point I was extremely prejudiced myself about such things, but find that my views changed after the war with Voldemort when our world was saved by the efforts of a pureblood, half-blood and muggleborn, indeed they even saved my own life at the risk of their own.

I am sorry that I cannot be of further assistance to you in this matter, but if I can be of help with other matters in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Draco Malfoy (Lord)

Well, that was slightly hopeful; at least there was some possibility of getting a house elf for Harry that had the wanted connection with Kreacher, although what the full story was with this Dobby, I don't know, I would need to bring it up with Harry at some point in the near future. I also found it encouraging that he seemed to be less obsessed with blood status than Harry maintained he would be; maybe there was hope for the magical world after all.

I was thinking of taking a lunch break when there was a knock on my office door and Kingsley entered. "Ah, good you're still here, I was hoping you hadn't left for lunch yet, I've had some research done in the old archives and it seems that the Court Mage would report to the First Lord of The Treasury in the muggle government, but unfortunately, this office seems to have died out, I can't discover who the present successor is; any ideas...?"

A/N Do any of my readers know who the current successor is to the title of First Lord of The Treasury? The title is correct and someone in the British muggle parliament does actually have that position, although it is not used too much today. Until next time, thanks for reading and a Happy New Year to you all.

Thank you to all the readers who have read and responded with a review. A special mention at this point must go to sachaelle, who has asked about Justin who was such a main player in 'A New Beginning', the first story in this series so far; Justin will not be a major player in this story but will be making a guest appearance at some point. He/She also enquired about the 'appearance' of 'Al' and 'Rose', their first mentions will occur shortly. There are no plans for Ron & Hermione to buy #13 Grimmauld; they currently live in the village of Ottery St. Mary, which is near to Ottery St. Catchpole, on the other side of the Rookery which is of course the Lovegood Residence, and incidentally can be found in Wikipedia and probably on Google Earth!


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